


Diamond Eclipse

by Hawkflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Assassination Plot(s), Ballroom Dancing, Character Study, Dark Humor, F/M, Flirting, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Innuendo, Murder, Nicknames, One-Sided Relationship, Past Abuse, Perceived Relationship(s), Sparring, Suggestive Themes, Surprise Kissing, Undecided Relationship(s), Violence, hand kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-07-10 15:47:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6992023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkflight/pseuds/Hawkflight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was a jewel, shining so brightly under the stage lights. It was as if she was begging to be pulled into the shadows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prequel

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm back to writing fanfiction, and supporting the weird pairings with next to no fics... Oh, and look! I made a new multi-chap! Again. And it's with a new weird pairing (that i adore for some reason... it all makes sense in my head). Again! Someone please keep the bunnies away from me long enough so I can finish one of these things instead of jumping between them all -.- In other news: please leave a comment/review if you like the story. Otherwise I feel alone in my weird shipping world...

He had only been at Beacon Academy for a few days, and already he felt like slitting his wrists and watching the blood flow would be more entertaining than sitting through another lecture by one of the school's rather eccentric teachers. Scratch that, slitting the wrists of that hyped up red-hooded idiot would be _far_ more entertaining. That is to say, such a scene would hold his attention for thirty seconds, maybe a whole minute.

Mercury doesn't bother suppressing his next sigh as he looks across the courtyard to see Ruby and her team are back from the city, along with Team JNPR. One of the few teams Cinder wants them to investigate, or rather one of the few people she wants to know more about; all in terms of combat prowess, of course.

So the plan Cinder had cooked up for the Vytal Festival would be ready.

When the festival actually began things would start to get interesting, but at the moment-

"Oooh, what's that book about? Must be exciting if you're already reading it, Blake."

"Uh...yeah." The faunus girl trying to pass as a human with her _cute wittle_ bow slid the inappropriately named book back into her bag. "It's about agriculture."

"Really?" Ruby seemed to be unsure for a moment. "Is it that interesting?"

"Well, it goes over how to make your own garden with the correct tools." Blake paused, obviously thinking back to her book. "Mhm, you need a plow to cultivate the soil, then fertilizer so the plants have enough nutrients to grow. The sprayer it uses to spread the fertilizer can make it quite messy though. Oh, planting the seeds can take some time if you want the plants to come out right, and-" she stopped abruptly when her companion dressed in white glared at her.

Her partner - who's boobs were very nearly popping out of her small top - was stifling laughter. While Ruby just stared at Blake with wide eyes. "That sounds like so much fun! We could make our own garden! Who's with me?"

Her sister evidently couldn't contain herself anymore as she burst out laughing at Blake's horrified expression at such a suggestion. The heiress merely hid her face behind her right hand, shaking her head.

"Let's see the book, Blake." Ruby said, as she stepped toward her.

_"No!"_

He might as well be in hell. Hmm, maybe he could sneak a comic into his next 'class.' So long as Cinder didn't notice he would be fine. Since he was suppose to be observing the students and looking out for any that were exemplary enough to put on the list.

The same boring task as Emerald; he wasn't sure why she was so excited about it, having to actually interact with these students... It was tiring acting so chipper all the time - a fact Emerald herself had pointed out.

One of the few things that would possibly rattle them was if an accident occurred during a sparring match in class. Then maybe they wouldn't be so happy _all the time_ or speaking in horrible innuendos for that matter.

"That was uncalled for, Blake." Weiss hissed as the group passed by his bench, Ruby jogging ahead of them, evidently having dropped the subject of 'agriculture.'

"Sorry." Blake murmured in reply. "But that is the essence of it. Unless you think I should have actually told her what the book was about?"

"You didn't have to go into _detail_. She would have dropped it faster if you hadn't."

"Come on, it's not that big of a deal, Weiss." Yang said with a grin, winking at Blake a second later. "Besides, it was pretty funny."

"Ugh." Weiss rolled her eyes as she picked up her pace, walking ahead of the other two. She spun around to face them a moment later when Yang laughed, causing Blake to join her this time. "You two are unbelievable!" She turned on her heel as they continued to laugh, causing her skirt to twist and rise for the second time within a minute, gliding up to reveal even more of her milky white thighs. The white-blue fabric of her skirt settled back into place quickly though as Weiss huffed, walking at a considerably faster pace away from her teammates.

That anger - or annoyance - at her teammates was accentuated with each swing of her hips. A rather hypnotizing motion as he watched her make her way to the doors of Beacon Academy. It was a shame she wasn't wearing something that hugged her bubble butt.

That Schnee would be delectable if not for her icy personality. Though, the dust company she was the heiress to easily outweighed that con. Not just because of the Dust they mined from the Schnee Quarry, but the money that came with that business model.

If he could get a hold of some of that dust and money she would be a lovely bonus; until Beacon fell into the fiery pits of hell, that is. It sounded much more entertaining than what he was currently doing: being bored out of his mind.


	2. The Mark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for continuing to read this random pairing. Enjoy the new chapter!

The moment his classes were over for the day Mercury left the school, heading into Vale. He was only delayed when Emerald had asked where he was going, and he had given her the most common excuse he could think up.

" _Out for a walk, to breathe in the fresh air. Is that a problem?"_

And that had been the end of that when Emerald just rolled her eyes, going back to her mission. Not to say he wasn't working on his own mission. He was keeping his eyes out for hunters-in-training from Beacon as he walked around town, as well as Weiss Schnee. She had left class with her team, all of them appearing to be busy and hurrying back to their dorm. So he hadn't seen an opening to talk with her, but he had heard Vale being mentioned in the hallway, making it a safe bet that they would all be heading into town.

Something he was entirely fine with. He couldn't spend one more second in that school for today anyway, and the city of Vale would be a nice change in scenery.

Mercury started at the shops, figuring it was the most likely place for a group of girls to go, though he hoped to find Weiss alone rather than with her team. He wandered the streets for awhile, making a few notes in his scroll, changing a few more after having thought about the abilities of the hunter or huntress on the list.

When he kept failing to see a single member of team RWBY or hear their overenthusiastic leader in the distance he figured they weren't going to any shops. It was entirely plausible they were trying to be a thorn in Roman Torchwick's side, seeing as according to the criminal it was Ruby's number one hobby. He supposed he should add her to the list along with the rest of her team just for being troublemakers. Mercury still hadn't seen any of them fight himself, though. So he couldn't really judge if they had any business being on the list or not.

Maybe tomorrow one of them would spar with another student so he could start figuring out their weakness and strengths, so Cinder could put the information to good use later on in the Vytal Festival.

Mercury added a separate file to his scroll as he walked, putting the team inside it and adding the basic info now so he wouldn't have to do it later; if any of them were skilled enough to get on the list he would move their pages over, but this way he would have a place for them even if they didn't make the list. He closed the scroll as he approached the CCT, not wanting their cameras to pick up any of the words on the screen. At first he just intended on using this path as a shortcut, but then he heard an oddly enthusiastic shout.

" _Woawh_! I forget how big the transit tower looks up close!" Yeah, there was no mistaking who _that_ voice belonged to.

"You should see the one in Atlas." Mercury stopped in his tracks, turning his head to see Weiss walking with her team leader, Ruby. But where was the rest of the team? It had sounded like they were all going out together.

"That was the first one, right?"

"Correct. Atlas developed the Cross-Continental Transit system to allow the Four Kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War."

"Oooh, look at me. My name is Weiss, I know facts. I'm rich." Ruby laughed at her own joke, snorting in the process. Though, he couldn't see much reason to laugh at just how much wealth that girl held. Her father easily had enough money to put out a contract on a whole kingdom, maybe even two. Unfortunately, he didn't make deals with assassins.

"Don't be a pest," Weiss said, one hand on her hip. "Besides, the only reason we're here is because you like the tower so much." _Oh?_ So the rest of her team wasn't here. "We could have just as easily made a call from the library."

"I know, but it's so cool. Oh, I'm gonna take a picture." Ruby went to grab her scroll, but it slipped out of her hands a moment later. He couldn't imagine how she had managed to get into Beacon, or even managed to wield her weapon without dropping it like the scroll. Or maybe the scroll was just trying to run away... not that it had gotten very far, having just hit another pedestrian on their foot.

"Oh. You dropped this." The orange-haired girl picked up the scroll, offering it back to Ruby.

"Penny?" Hm, so they knew eachother.

"Uh..."

"Where have you been? We haven't seen you since the night at the docks."

"S-sorry. I think you're confused." Suddenly the girl let out a hiccup, the scroll bouncing from her hands to Ruby's. "Uh, I got to go."

"What was that about?" Weiss asked a question he didn't particularly care to know the answer to.

"I don't know," Ruby replied, watching the odd girl walk away. "But I'm going to find out. You go make your call. I'll meet up with you later!"

"Wait!" Weiss shouted after her, but Ruby was already gone, clearly preoccupied with Penny. He could hear her release a heavy sigh a moment later, but he could only grin. She was alone; today actually seemed to be working in his favor, even with the faulty beginning.

Mercury walked over to her as she stood there, staring after Ruby with a scowl on her face that was slowly slipping into a frown. "Your friend ditch you?"

She gave a small jump - clearly not expecting anyone behind her, or that they would be talking to her - before she whirled around: a motion he watched in fascination, before his gaze settled on her own. "Who do you think you are sneaking up on people?" Her words had bite, but he could only chuckle.

"Sorry. I'm Mercury, a student from Haven," he introduced himself. "No one from my team wanted to come into town and explore the sights Vale has to offer. They're a bit eccentric," he added with a grin. Of course, the only sight he wanted to explore in Vale was her.

"I'm certain that's an exaggeration. You haven't seen my team-" She cut herself off for a beat. "Or maybe you have, if you're staying at Beacon."

"I did recognize the other girl with you. She bumped into one of my teammates in the hallway while we were checking out the school. She seemed a bit... hyperactive."

Weiss' lips curled upward slightly. "That's an understatement." She frowned a moment later, though. "Aren't you going to ask for my name?"

He titled his head to the side by just a fraction, a single brow rising. "I have to ask?"

The light shade of pink that appeared on her cheeks an instant later practically made her look like a piece of fruit. One that was ripe for the picking. "It's Weiss."

Mercury smiled at her, an innocent snow cherry. "Do you mind if I accompany you to the CCT then, Weiss?"He didn't think he would find her here, but by the time she was done with her call he would have had enough time to figure out who he should call; just so he had an excuse to be hanging around the CCT, besides looking for her that is.

Her cheeks lost their lovely roseate shade. "I..." The second of silence seemed to stretch into a whole minute for him. "Sure. Why not?" she seemed to be trying to convince herself that it was fine, though he suspected she couldn't find any plausible reason to tell him no. Especially when she had been clearly upset when Ruby left so suddenly.

"Should we head up, then?"

Weiss only gave a nod of her head, turning on her heel to walk towards the doors of the CCT. As much as he wanted to trail behind and watch her Mercury matched her pace, walking alongside her.

The door swung open by itself, the sensors blinking a few times as their feet passed through them. Weiss headed straight toward the elevator that slid open when they were barely three feet away. Mercury leaned back against the wall of the elevator once inside, eyes straying to Weiss, who stood closest to the panel.

"Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?" A computerized voice spoke as soon as the elevator's doors closed.

"I'd like to go to the Communications room, please." Weiss spoke with her hand on her hip - once again.

Her outfit for today was different than the one he had seen her in before. There was no blue tinge to the fabric, it was a plain white, coupled with accents of black: most of which were close to the edges of her outfit, besides the buttons, and a few black-lined detailings. He preferred it, she looked good in black.

"Absolutely. Could you please place your scroll on the terminal to verify your identity?" Weiss retrieved her scroll from a pocket, placing it on the terminal as the machine let out a series of beeps. "Perfect. Thank you, Miss Schnee."

With a palette like that he had to wonder what she was wearing underneath. It would make sense for it to be either white or black, the latter of which he would like to see. If that's what it was, especially if it was the focus color. She just wore so much white... snow colors, seeing her in something darker, that would hug her frame, that he could slide off her body-

The door slid open with a beep and he stepped out after Weiss, pushing his thoughts back into the corners of his mind. There was no reason to imagine it now, before she gave herself to him. Something he would need to work toward if he was going to get everything he wanted from her before the Vytal Festival could even end.

A hologram of a woman popped up behind the desk Weiss had approached, while he lagged behind for the time being. "Welcome to the Beacon Cross-Continental Transmit Center. How may I help you?"

"I need to make a call to Schnee Company, World Headquarters in Atlas."

"Absolutely. If you could head over to terminal three I'll patch you right through." These computer A.I. really needed an update in their vocabulary. It was almost saying the exact same thing as it had in the elevator, only switching a few words around where needed.

"Thank you." Weiss gave a small nod of her head

He followed after her, only stopping to tell the hologram, "I'll patch myself through. Thanks."

"Very well," the woman responded, flickering out a moment later.

As Weiss took her seat at terminal three he simply leaned against the cubicle it was in, pretending to look around the room; as if he were more interested in it than her and the Schnee Company. As if he wasn't glancing down at her every other second, trying to figure out the best way to go about getting what he wanted from her.

So when she let out a small sigh, he found himself fixated on her expression. One that clearly didn't look forward to this call. "Thank you for calling the Atlas- _oh!_ Miss Schnee. Good afternoon. Would you like me to patch you through to your father? I think your sister Winter might be here as well."

"No thank you," Weiss' reply was pleasant, but there was something off about it. "I was actually wondering if you could find some files for me. I've compiled a short list." She inserted her scroll into a slot on the dashboard, that would send this list she had mentioned to the woman that had answered her call.

"I see. If you don't mind, what, may I ask, is this for?"

"School project."

"Um, there is some sensitive documents on this list, ma'am." That caught his attention. Sure, the heiress was a Schnee, and therefore a part of the company, but he hadn't thought they would allow her to access such information. Even with her being the daughter of the man that ran the company. But from what he could tell, this secretary of sorts was going to just hand it over, with very little resistance.

"Well then, I'll be sure to treat them with care." Seriously?

"Right. Very well. The data's being transferred to your scroll now." He hadn't thought that she would be such a big flaw in their security.

"Wonderful." Weiss said, still smiling. "That will be all then."

"Are you sure you wouldn't like me to patch you through to your father before you go?"

That diplomatic smile of hers slipped, for a second. "Yes, I'm sure." when she spoke though, her lips became thin when pressed together, her features constricted.

"Well then, have a nice day."

The screen must have blinked out as Weiss was no longer forcing a smile. She seemed to be lost in her own mind, lips pulled down, as if she were sulking.

He couldn't be sure which, but the mention of her father - or sister - and the idea of speaking to one of them had upset her. That much was clear, as was the fact that she was now brushing it off: shaking her head, as if getting rid of whatever thoughts clouded her mind, turning her attention to him, and giving him a semi-tight smile. So he knew he had nothing to do with her now sour mood, that she didn't expect him to say anything about it, to offer a shoulder, or... anything, really.

Which was fine, because he wasn't going to offer. He hadn't sought her out to comfort her over something he didn't understand.

"Did you need to use the terminal, to?"

Right, he needed to call someone. The reason didn't really matter-

Mercury grinned. He had the perfect candidate. "Yeah," he said, slipping into the chair after Weiss had gotten up. It only took a few seconds for him to enter the numbers - and symbols - so the call would go through and connect - so his own number would come up as 'unknown' so she would actually answer.

Weiss had taken up his former space, seemingly disappearing back into her mind until a voice came from the screen. "What the hell? Merc?" He could see her jump from the corner of his eye as Emerald appeared on the terminal.

"Nice to see you, too, Em."

She just blinked at him, before scowling. "Mercury, what are you doing?" His lips pulled further up at how easy it was to push her buttons. He must have interrupted something important. He wondered if she had been working on an essay for one of their classes, but it was more likely she was working on her own mission. Still, he would find it hilarious if she had been working on something for that school.

"I decided to visit the CCT."

"So, you called _me_? Instead of anyone _outside_ of Vale." Emerald was practically glowering at him now. "Do you even know what the CCT stands for?"

"Yes," he said, not giving much thought to just which question he was answering. One or the other. Both? Or neither? The latter would drive her up the wall and onto the ceiling. He smirked at the screen, watching as Emerald's eyes narrowed, clearly knowing he was playing a game with her.

She was actually holding her tongue though, instead of insulting him further. Just giving him an icy glare - that easily outmatched Weiss' own.

"How exciting." Another voice, smooth as silk and sharp as a dagger came from within the same room as Emerald; just as Weiss seemed to be getting over the initial shock of Emerald's greeting. The heiress turned her head, even though she wouldn't be able to see the woman, mainly because Cinder wasn't on the screen, but also because Weiss couldn't see the terminal from where she was.

Which was probably a good thing, he hadn't divulged his plans for the Schnee girl to any of his teammates. He certainly didn't need Emerald seeing her right now, she looked annoyed enough as it was. If she knew he was after the heiress she might just explode on him and then he wouldn't be able to go after her, not without some major damage control.

"Don't encourage him," Emerald's comment started with a snap like a whip, but then she seemed to remember who she was talking to and her voice lost it's bite, practically trailing off, as she looked in - what he presumed to be - Cinder's direction. "Sor-"

"How is your little project going?" Cinder cut off Emerald's apology, directing a question at him instead.

Reflexively he gave a shrug of his shoulders, even though he wasn't sure if she could see the motion or not. "It's fine. Did you get the update I sent?"

"Yes. It was, _illuminating_."

He chuckled slightly, knowing just who she was referring to. _Of course_ that one had piqued her interest. "Glad to be of service."

"Hm. Don't stay out too late."

Emerald terminated the call before he could respond, evidently having just waited for Cinder to end the conversation. Not that it mattered if he was able to say goodbye or not, he had accomplished what he set out to do: annoy Emerald. It was a simple bonus that Weiss seemed to have forgotten that she had been upset minutes ago.

Mercury pushed himself and the chair away from the terminal before he got up, pushing the chair back into the cubicle with his foot. He didn't say a word as he passed by Weiss, heading toward the elevator, but he could hear her footsteps behind him.

A few seconds after the elevator doors had slid closed again and he had told the computer system to take them to the ground floor, Weiss asked, "Eccentric is the word you used?"

He chuckled lightly. That was what had been preoccupying her mind now? "Yeah, it's not the most accurate word for them."

"No, they certainly seem to be quirky enough to warrant it. I just thought you meant traditional eccentric." Weiss paused. "Like Ruby."

Mercury couldn't stop himself from laughing at that even if he wanted to. He was about to take a step forward when the elevator doors slid open, but before he could set his foot down, turn to ask her if she was busy at the moment or if she would mind if he tagged along, a voice in clear distress came from Weiss' scroll.

"Everyone, if you can hear me we need back-"

_"Heeelp!"_

Weiss gave a roll of her eyes, stepping forward - as if to run right over to whereever her friends were - only to stop and turn to face him. "I got to go," she said, not offering up any explanation as she turned to leave once more.

This was rather unfortunate, but... "I'll see you later."

"Huh?" Weiss stopped in her tracks, not even halfway across the room yet. She glanced at him over her shoulder and he had to wonder why she was so surprised at how geunine his words were. "...yeah."

He smirked at her retreating back as she hurried off.


	3. Stuck in Limbo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll still be using a few scenes from the show for a bit longer, but there will be a large gap without any (or at least minimal) scenes before they come in again around the ending of the fic. I'm trying to keep this as canon-compliant as possible, after all.
> 
> I hope you continue to enjoy the fic!

Sparks were dancing through the air as metal collided repeatedly. A halberd was halted in its path from a well-placed shield. The same shield that was thrown like a boomerang seconds later, knocking back the leader of the team and another member as well.

There was certainly no wasted energy on Pyrrha Niko's part. When she swung her spear it hit her target, when she fired bullets at the team each one had to be blocked or the victim would suffer the consequences. She didn't take a single hit though, she would either block it or dodge. Which took considerable skill, oh, and luck, usually. Something told him that she didn't rely on that last component.

Not that she couldn't just rely on her armor in the first place for some of those blows. There was a heavy concentration of armor on her legs - probably because she was so dependent on being able to _move_ , something most fighters shared, - along with her left arm - her shield arm - with a bronze bracer, there were even some minor plates of bronze at her hip. Of course, none of it mattered since her aura had not been depleted.

It was simply interesting that she bothered with armor in the first place, when most people relied on their auras to protect them. Though, armor did lessen the blow of an attack regardless, and put less of a strain on one's aura to defend them. It helped to conserve the aura, and even though most of the team she was fighting currently wore suits of armor, they seemed oblivious to this fact.

Though, that drapery was an oversight. The red piece of fabric falling from her waist and nearly touching her ankle twisted and turned in the air around her when she fought. A loose piece of fabric that could easily be grabbed onto in a battle. If only her opponents weren't such idiots and used their brains instead of their brawn.

"And that's the match," Glynda Goodwitch spoke just moments after the leader of the opposing team hit the ground for a second time, bouncing just like a rock on the surface of a lake.

"Ugh, lucky shot," the leader groaned before falling on his side with a _thump_. Because it was so fitting to not accept defeat, but instead look even more like a fool.

"Well done, Miss Nikos. You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."

"Thank you, Professor." The corner of his lip twitched. Was Pyrrha always this sincere? It's not like she needed to practice brown nosing, not when the staff of Beacon already adored her as it was. Not too mention her fellow peers.

"Alright. Now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?" He followed the Professor's gaze to the the girl just off to his right, one bench down, sitting just slightly away from her own team. "Miss Belladona?" At the sound of her name Blake closed the book she had been reading, sitting up straighter; as if that would hide the black circles around her eyes that had been getting darker ever since that day he went to the CCT, and heard her voice over Weiss' scroll. "You've been rather docile for the past few classes, why don't you-"

"I'll do it," he said, raising his hand. This was the only class he found any entertainment in, besides, he needed to see for himself what that other variable was that made Pyrrha Nikos untouchable.

Blake's ears twitched, but he already knew she wasn't going to protest. She clearly didn't want to participate. It was more likely she was relieved that now she wouldn't have to. Unless he chose her as his opponent. As if.

"Mercury, is it?" He could see Weiss lean back and turn her head just slightly from the corner of his eye. Mercury had to suppress a grin; so she had remembered him from the CCT. "Very well. Let's find you an opponent."

Mercury stood up even as Glynda began typing away at her scroll. "Actually, I want to fight... _her_." He pointed his finger directly at Pyrrha, who was still standing in the arena.

"Me?" Pyrrha looked surprised by this request, but if he had judged her correctly-

"I'm afraid, Miss Nikos has just finished a match." Glynda was giving him a disapproving glare. "I recommend you choose another partner."

"No! It's fine." He almost smirked when Pyrrha turned her gaze from Glynda, to meet his own. "I'd be happy to oblige."

Glynda was frowning, but it's not like she could tell either of them no now. "Fine. The last sparring match will be Pyrrha versus Mercury."

He winked at Emerald as he passed by her, walking down the stairs to the arena floor. With Pyrrha already there the only sound was his boots on the ground, and with everyone silently watching it almost seemed to echo around him. It was too bad he wouldn't be going all out here, he just needed information for the list after all. So it was still going to be awhile before he had any fun with that, but this would indulge him, at least for a little while.

Mercury slid into his fighting stance once he was in the dark circle on the middle of the floor. He waited for a few seconds to pass, watching Pyrrha just like she was watching him: cautious, calculating, finding those potential weak points. Before he sprinted forward, pushing off from the ground just enough to strike his other boot against her raised shield: signaling the fight had started.

She deflected most of his attacks with that shield, only making minor adjustments each time he striked at her. Until she used her arm that is, letting her weapon twirl in the air when she otherwise might have been able to strike. An opportunity? Nothing obvious had changed, but there was something in her eyes that said it had.

His eyes narrowed as he spun around, kicking up into the air to hit her shield- and then her weapon, knocking it from her hand. Mercury smirked as his gaze landed back on her, backing up, clearly taking a defensive route until she could retrieve her weapon. But when he kicked at her - boot not even skimming the surface of her shield, but almost, _almost_ \- her hand was up, palm flat, and there was a force directing his boot _away_ from her.

The sudden shift unbalanced him, for a moment. He steadied himself on the ground, knowing she was grabbing her weapon as he ran those last few seconds on repeat in his mind. "Hmm."

Then he heard her boots behind him and stood up, turning to place both of his boots on her shield before firing. The recoil sent Pyrrha stumbling backward as he was propelled across the arena, landing squarely on his feet. Even as Pyrrha began to rush at him he took his time standing up, turning to face Glynda who had been watching the match with little interest.

"I forfeit." He had gotten what he came here for.

He could hear Pyrrha gasp behind him, shifting her path so she didn't run into him. "You... don't even want to try?" Pyrrha asked, looking at him with uncomprehending eyes. She likely wouldn't even realize that today had been the factor that brought her down in the Vytal Festival later, in just a few short months.

"What's the point? You're a world-renowned fighter, we're obviously leagues apart." Pyrrha only frowned at his words.

"In that case, Pyrrha Nikos is the victor of the match, _again_." Glynda really didn't sugarcoat her words, did she? "Next time you may want to think a little harder, before choosing an opponent."

"I'll be sure to do that." Unlike Pyrrha he didn't care if his words came out sincere or not. He already knew how to pick an opponent; how to choose the best contract. He didn't need Glynda's 'advice.'

He was already walking towards the stairs when the bell rang, signalling the end of classes for the day. "That is all for today. And remember the dance is this weekend, but you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."

Mercury passed by Emerald on the way out, not even giving her a second glance as he was already scanning the area for Weiss. His eyes landed on Blake first, though, trailing behind her teammates with her face stuck in a book. Probably the same one she had been reading during the sparring matches.

There was a series of squeaks as a faunus jogged up to her. "Hey, Blake!" The boy tapped the girl on the shoulder when he spoke. "You uh, doing okay?"

"I'm fine." As Blake stopped and turned to face the faunus he could see her team stop and turn around as well.

The faunus cleared his throat, standing a little straighter. "So I hear there's this dance going on this weekend. Agh, sounds pretty lame, but you and me I'm thinking not as lame, huh?" Well, that was an interesting way to word it. He didn't think he had ever heard someone be so awkward about asking someone to a dance before.

"What?" And Blake didn't appear to understand what the faunus was saying anyway. Though, it should have been obvious.

"The dance, this weekend. Do you want to go or what?" Maybe the poor guy should have stuck with his first attempt.

"I don't have time for a stupid dance. I thought you of all people would get that." As Blake walked off his gaze slid past her to Weiss, eyes meeting for a moment and he smiled.

It didn't matter to him whether those two went to the dance or not, because she would be going with him. So far he hadn't seen anyone approach her about going to the dance, but since it was less than two days away and there were no more classes from here to then, he might actually see who else was trying to get her to go with them. That way he would know how to deal with them, see if their attempts even mattered or not. But whenever he saw her she was predominately with her team, so he was thinking it would end up being the latter.

A few people must have asked her before now, got shot down, and moved on. He had heard people whisper in the halls, calling her the Ice Queen, after all. So it wasn't much of a stretch that that would be one of the reasons for such a nickname, especially since he was hearing it more now with the dance just around the corner.

Mercury averted his gaze when he heard Emerald's voice a few paces behind him. "That was rather pitiful. Could you imagine having to ask one of these kids to the dance?"

He glanced over his shoulder at her, suppressing a frown. He planned on it, actually. "You mean to say you haven't put any thought into it? What are you going to do about the dance? Didn't you say you were going?" Not that Weiss looked anything like a kid, or rather she wouldn't be when he was through with her.

Emerald's friendly grin quickly slipped into a scowl. "It was an order. Or have you forgotten, Merc?" She had stopped walking now, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him.

He took a step back, as if he was intimidated by her oh-so-terrorizing posture, hands up, palms facing outward. "Just saying, someone like you should have a back-up date."

The corner of his lip twitched up the moment Emerald took a step toward him. "I swear if you're not at the dance on Sunday-"

"Oh, I'll be there," he assured her. And when he arrived Emerald would realize just what sort of game he had been playing here, as she seemed to be getting the wrong impression so far. "It was just a suggestion. A piece of advice."

"A poor one."

"You would know about that, wouldn't you?"

When Emerald let out a growl at his words he turned around before she could take another step toward him, quickly making his way towards the school. She must have decided he wasn't worth the trouble of following - she certainly wouldn't be interested in what he was doing - since he didn't hear her footsteps behind him after the first few seconds had passed.

He chuckled softly to himself as he entered the building, going off to find where Weiss was so he could observe anyone that approached her, of course.

Most of which ended up being pretty boring, as no one had come up to her while he was watching so far. He was debating whether to go back to his own dorm or not when he heard a boy's voice in the hallway, low and muttering to himself, "Play it cool, just be confident. That's the way to go."

Mercury tilted his head to the side as he listened from around the corner, pretending to read a comic. Just what was this guy up to?

"Okay. One, two-" There was a large intake of breath here. "-Three."

A series of knocks echoed down the hallway and - after a moment - he could hear a door swing open. For whatever it was worth, the hunter-in-training didn't fumble on the guitar strings as he sang out her name, "Weiss!"

To have the door swing shut a moment later.

More knocking followed. "Oh, come on. Open the door. I promise not to sing." Somehow he couldn't find it in him to be surprised when the door opened again and he heard the boy's voice fill the hallway once more. "I lied! Weiss Schnee, will you accompany me, to the dance on... Sunday!" Did he really just forget what day the dance was on?

"Are you done?" he could hear Weiss ask.

"Yes?" The boy didn't seem too sure of his answer.

"No."

The door closed once more; the exact sort of outcome he had expected from something like that. Well, it was safe to say she wasn't interested in whoever that had been; who was still standing out in the hallway. It was an interesting way to end today, anyway.

It only took the next morning for him to learn that boy's name. As he was eating breakfast, back turned to the team when he heard the voice again, clearly directed at Weiss, "Were you made from a Ice crystal? Because you're like a frosty tre-"

"Umm, Jaune?" It was Blake that spoke.

"Yes?"

"I recommend you don't finish that sentence."

There was a pause. "I see your point. I'm going."

He had to wonder if this Jaune fellow had been looking at pick up lines online, and had just planned on using whatever seemed like it would relate best with Weiss. Though, he wasn't sure if he was more amused that Jaune hadn't realized what he was about to say or that he went with one that had the word 'ice' in it. He doubted it was the sort of word Weiss wanted to hear directed at her. Especially with one of her nicknames being, Ice Queen.

Mercury didn't actually see Weiss until around noon, as Emerald had dragged him along for their mission preparations; which included him standing around as Emerald picked out her dress, along with Cinder's - who was off doing something that was actually important for the mission on Sunday. He had just picked up one of the suits that had been tailored for the male students of Haven while he was there, occasionally commenting on Emerald's attire until she had clearly decided she no longer wanted his opinion - or 'help' as she had called it - with picking out either dress.

Suffice to say he took the opportunity to get the hell out before she changed her mind again.

It took wandering into a few separate buildings before he found Weiss in one, sitting at a table with a cup of coffee in hand. She released a sigh as he walked towards her, staring down at something on the surface of the table that he couldn't see with her current position.

"Is there a problem?"

Weiss whirled around almost as quickly as she had at the CCT; chair and all. "Do you always sneak up on people?"

"No, they just happen to have their backs turned to me most of the time." Which was quite handy in his line of work.

"Okay." She let out another sigh. "Well, could you like, breathe or something next time?"

He couldn't help himself, he took in a big gulp of air, then exhaled as dramatically as he could. Weiss merely leaned back in her chair, arms crossed beneath her chest with a look that clearly stated, ' _Not. Funny_.' A laugh slipped past his lips before he could stop it, and he coughed a moment later when Weiss just glared, trying to stop himself from laughing further at her expense.

"Sorry." Mercury gave her a smile, the corner of his lip still twitching. "Was there something else that was bothering you?"

Weiss was silent for a moment, but then she turned around, retrieving two square pieces of fabric from the table, before turning back to face him. "Do these look like the same color to you?"

Personally he didn't think he would be asked such a question until much later in life, preferably never; but if necessary then after he had been scattered into the wind. After a moment Mercury directed his gaze to the pieces of cloth. They were both gray, but one was lighter, while the other was darker. It just wasn't very noticeable unless you stared closely at them, or had them nearly shoved into your face. "No."

This time when Weiss sighed it was one of relief. "Which tablecloth would you prefer to see at the dance tomorrow?"

It really felt like he was getting a glimpse into a futuristic nightmare. But considering it was for the school dance and he had seen Yang walking around with a bag of pink and blue balloons... "That one," he pointed to the darker gray cloth when he spoke.

Weiss smiled so brightly he was sure he was blinded for a few seconds. "Thanks. My team is doing the decorations for the dance. I'm gonna go get those tablecloths now. Thanks again for the help."

When he could see again she was no longer sitting in the chair in front of him. Mercury blinked, but it didn't make her magically reappear, or make a map manifest from the air, showing him just where she would be getting said tablecloths from.

Maybe he could-

"Mercury." He froze at the sound of Emerald's voice. There was no way in hell she had decieded on _two_ dresses in such a short amount of time. "Can you-"

"I don't want to," he said quickly, making a beeline for the door.

There was a soft growl behind him, then a hand enclosed around his wrist before he was being pulled back in the direction of that accursed store. Why couldn't she leave him alone for today? She had been doing such a good job of not getting in his way before. He didn't really want to let Weiss out of his sight for too much longer today, in the case that someone asked her to the dance and she actually said yes.

He released his own sigh when Emerald had him sit down in one of the chairs just right outside of the changing rooms. When he looked up though, he knew he wasn't getting out of this until they were done. Cinder was there as well.

Seriously now, couldn't they just go bother Roman if they really needed a guy's opinion _that_ badly?

As the hours stretched on he was sure they had already picked out the dresses they would be wearing to the dance and were just using him as a source of amusement. Which he supposed under different circumstances would be a good way to pass the time - and irritate the shop owner further, along with the other employees.

Most of which at this point were sent out into the racks of dresses by either Emerald or Cinder every five or ten minutes to fetch another dress. Judging by their mutterings they were having a hard time finding something new _and_ in their size at this point.

Eventually the store owner came over, saying they needed to close now and could they _please_ pick a dress. Okay, maybe the lady hadn't been so dramatic about it, but she had remained as polite as one possibly could with a bulging vein on their forehead. That nearly bursted when Cinder walked up to the cashier stand, with two dresses that Emerald and her had worn hours ago, paying for them with a single swipe of a card and a wide grin.

Even with the dresses paid for and the fact that they were leaving, the store owner did everything _but_ chase them out. Though, the woman had looked like she was going to crack any second.

It was dark now, and - as entertaining as today had turned out to be - he really needed to go and find Weiss.

"I'll meet you back at the dorm later," he said, handing their dresses over to Emerald who was giving him a quizzical look - as if she were about to start interrogating him on just what he was planning to do.

But Cinder laughed and Emerald's focus was redirected to her. "Alright. We won't wait up."

With a quick wave goodbye Mercury sped away from the pair, going to the other end of the buildings that housed the student's dorms. He nearly stopped in his tracks upon spotting Jaune walking alongside the building for Haven, holding a blue rose in one hand and wearing a stupid grin on his face.

Clearly someone had given the boy a confidence boost.

Mercury watched him for a few more seconds, until Weiss' voice filled the air, "Neptune!" sending the boy jumping back behind the corner of the building. As Weiss walked - or rather she skipped forward once she was closer to the blue-haired boy. He recalled having seen him with the faunus that had tried to get Blake's attention before, but he hadn't seen any reason to know his name until now.

"Oh, uh, hey. What's up?" This Neptune asked, stopping to turn and face Weiss.

"I know this is a little... unorthodox, but I wanted to ask you something." Mercury watched as Weiss twisted her hands behind her, fingers twiddling, a single foot raised and scuffing the ground as she asked, "Would you like to accompany me to the dance tomorrow?"

Well, he hadn't been expecting _that_.

From the way Neptune was scratching at the back of his head he hadn't either. He saw Jaune drop his rose from the corner of his eye, turning and walking away with a defeated look on his face. But Mercury continued to watch the two from the shadows of the next building over.

"The dance?"

"Yeah," Weiss said, smiling brightly.

"Tomorrow?"

Weiss only bounced on her heels in response. It was so damn obvious she wanted him to say yes - expected it - that Mercury was actually wondering _why_ Neptune hadn't accepted her proposal yet.

"I... uh, I can't." Weiss stopped moving. "It's not that, uh... I would, but..." He did realize he was just digging himself into a deeper hole, _right?_ And what the hell was wrong with this guy, anyway?

"It's fine."

He wasn't sure whether he should cringe or laugh when Weiss spoke. _It's fine._ Right, that's what every girl said when it _wasn't_ fine.

Weiss turned sharply on her heel, walking faster than she had even done before, just speeding away with her cheeks holding a red tinge, a crestfallen look on her face. While Neptune stood there, scratching the back of his head, clearly not knowing what to do.

Well, he couldn't say he didn't prefer this outcome himself. It was perfect, actually.

Mercury slid around the building, walking just fast enough so he could get to the Beacon dorms before her. He stopped at the doors facing in the direction of the Haven dorms, leaning back against one of the pillars as he waited, counting away the seconds quietly to himself.

Weiss came around the corner with the fastest speed-walk he had ever seen, nearly plowing into him. "Hey! Watch it!" She stopped herself seconds before she would have crashed into him, turning her head up to look at him with an expression that had decieded glaring mode would make her feel better - or hide how she was feeling. "Mercury?" The mask slipped for a second. "What are you doing here?"

He allowed himself to smile down at her. "If no one has asked you yet, I was wondering if you'd come to the dance with me?"

"Huh?" She actually gave a little jump at his question, eyes widening for a second before she regained her composure. "What?" He couldn't tell if she didn't actually believe him or not, or was just having a hard time taking his words in after what had happened moments before with Neptune.

"Only if you want to, of course. You can say no."

Weiss blinked, staring at him with some unreadable expression. "Um." She took a step back, turning away so he could no longer see her face; so he could no longer attempt to figure out what she was thinking. She stayed like that, looking towards the Haven building for nearly fifteen seconds before she turned back around.

Her hands were clasped in front of her now, fingers held still, the toe of her left boot pressed to the back of her right boot."Would _you_ like to go to the dance with me?"

He gave a large grin. "I'd love to."


	4. Pumpkin Prince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy everyone is enjoying this so far!

The music filled the ballroom, although not too loud, it seemed to creep into every crevice with the strategic placing of the stereos. It was colorful as well, with pink and blue balloons pinned to the walls with matching blue or pink tape. The tablecloth - a dark grey - offset this a bit, creating a nice calm atmosphere for a dance.

Unlike Yang had initially told him though, there were no fog machines in sight. Or dollies for that matter. It was rather obvious that Yang and Weiss either hadn't come to a compromise on that matter, or Glynda had simply settled it for them. The latter was probably the most likely. Not that he understood what their professor had against fog machines or dollies for that matter.

She could have at least accepted the former, then it would be easier for him to hide in the fog. It was rather hard too otherwise when most people had dancing partners and you were one of the few that didn't. It made you stick out like a sore thumb, and he didn't really want to be seen alone at the moment.

Which is why he had inched his way over to the refreshment table, where Ruby had also chosen to hide in plain view. At least he wasn't the only one to come to the party alone - a dance party no less. Not that Ruby seemed to mind that so much, she just kept squirming in her heels, and he nearly winced at seeing her like that.

He had seven sisters after all, and he knew from their complaints that those heels could do a number on a girl's feet. Especially if worn for a long period of time, he could clearly remember his youngest sister tip-toeing through the house and only wearing sandals the few days following the first time she wore heels for several long hours. It had left cuts and blisters on her feet: the stuff of nightmares.

Jaune side-stepped into place next to her. "I see you're hiding at the punch bowl too."

"Yuuup." Ruby popped the p as she stared out at the dance floor, looking bored and - he presumed - wanting out of those heels.

"To the socially awkward," he said, offering his glass for a 'toast' in an attempt to cheer her up.

Their glasses _clinked_ together when Ruby accepted the distraction, laughing softly. "Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss."

And he was instantly reminded why he was standing here alone, because Weiss had asked Neptune to the dance, and as much as it hurt to see her asking him out... He just couldn't get in the way of whatever relationship they had - _might_ have. "Meh, it's fine. Neptune's pretty cool. I get why she went with him."

"What do you mean?" Ruby turned to him, confusion in her voice.

"Well come on, not many people can pull off blue hair," he said, before taking a sip from his glass. Even he couldn't deny that Neptune was cool, it also didn't mean he had to be happy about it. Hence, standing at the punch bowl with Ruby. He would ask her if she wanted to dance, if she didn't already look like she might fall over in those heels, that is. Hmm, well there wasn't any rules about being barefoot in the ballroom, was there?

Before he could make the casual suggestion Ruby spoke, "No, I mean, Weiss came to the dance with some other guy."

Jaune nearly choked on the punch upon hearing her words. "Uh, _what_?" His ears _had_ to be deceiving him.

"His name was Mer... Merc? Myrc?" Ruby paused, as if concentrating to try and figure it out, but she gave up soon after. "I know it started with a m."

"You don't even know what his name is?" he couldn't stop himself from asking, even though it hardly mattered. Weiss had gone to the dance with _another_ guy. As in, not Neptune? But she had asked him... what exactly happened after he walked away the other night?

She had seemed so cheerful when she approached Neptune, embarrassed even, but... this didn't make any sense. Not to him, anyway. Was he missing something? Some vital component? Like a hidden item in a game?

"Weiss sort of just said it all in a rush when Yang asked. The only thing I know for sure is that he's from Haven."

Jaune glanced to the ballroom floor, still not really believing any of it until he found Weiss - in a dazzling dress - dancing with some other guy, and he did have the same golden outline on his suit like every other Haven student that had come for the Vytal festival. It was the same reason Neptune was here, but... but why wasn't she with him then?

As he focused on Weiss though, he noticed she wasn't looking at the guy in front of her. Instead she was looking around the guy's taller frame, straight at Neptune. There was a downward curl at the corners of her lips, a sadness in her eyes - or was that hurt? She wasn't enjoying herself like he had imagined she would from last night.

While Neptune was laughing with Blake and Sun, clearly joking around as they were laughing at something he had said. How could he be so happy? While Weiss was... His gaze shifted back to the girl that had stolen his heart.

Merc? Myrc? Whatever his name was, he had tipped Weiss' head up with a finger beneath her chin. He was saying something to her, but Jaune was too far to hear. Weiss was shifting her head, so he no longer held her chin, but she wasn't pulling away, just simply turning her head so she wasn't looking at Neptune. A few seconds later she appeared to stumble forward as the guy removed his hands from her own, instead re-connecting them at her mid-back as she was pulled closer. So that her cheek was brushing against the fabric of his suit. Her eyes went wide for a moment, but then she closed them, swaying rather than dancing with the student from Haven.

He didn't understand it, but clearly Neptune hadn't accepted her proposal to go to the dance together, _and_ it was bothering her. To the point that she wasn't (couldn't?) enjoying herself with... whoever that guy was.

It hurt to see her with another guy - he couldn't deny that - after she had turned him down countless times - he would never be able to express how much regret he had for going about that the way he had - but, it also confused him. And seeing Neptune completely fine, - knowing what happened last night, partially anyway - unaffected by whatever had transpired... that's what bothered him the most.

"Hold my punch," Jaune told Ruby, handing her his drink before he walked into the sea of dancers.

He had made a beeline for Neptune, but then Pyrrha stepped into his path, not even acknowledging him - or noticing him - she made her way to the stairs. Alone, with her head hanging low as she carefully stepped up the steps.

There was something wrong, and as much as he wanted to question Neptune about what had happened that night, he could wait. Jaune made his way after Pyrrha, following the flow of red silk that disappeared around the door and out to the balcony.

_~ M ~_

The moment he had stepped through that door he had seen Emerald roll her eyes from one of the chairs and begin to get up - probably thinking he was late - only to freeze completely when she noticed he wasn't alone a second later. Her gaze had zero'd in on Weiss, who had been standing at his side at the time, taking a few seconds to converse with her teammate, Yang; before she had wrapped her fingers around his arm, pulling him along.

From the corner of his eye he could see Yang watching them go, but the confusion in her eyes didn't amuse him even a tenth as much as Emerald. She was glaring at him as Weiss led him to the ballroom floor, and he knew it wasn't out of jealousy. Emerald had clearly been surprised, angry, and beyond annoyed. Even though he was much too far to hear her he could tell she was hissing under her breath, calling him all the names in the book, cursing his very existence. Probably also saying that he was incompetent for their task tonight, among other things.

He really wished he had been close enough to hear her - which would have required standing right next to her - but then Weiss would have heard her as well. It was unfortunate, but he was sure she would chew him out later and it would be just as amusing if he had approached her earlier.

Mercury was rather positive that Emerald had gone off to complain to Cinder, to tell her just what he was up to - Emerald wouldn't have any problems realizing why he was with Weiss of all people. Instead of attending the dance with her as they had originally planned. Another thing Emerald would probably mention to Cinder as well, claiming he was going to screw everything up.

He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes, as if he would purposely go about doing something to screw up their plans. Especially after what Cinder had done for him in the past. He was just having some fun, passing the time in more creative ways; that was hardly a crime.

Even if his fun involved breaking quite a few real laws.

Once he got a tighter hold on the person that would make everything go into motion, that is. Weiss may be dancing with him, but she wasn't focused on him. He had noticed it the moment that blue-haired idiot Neptune had walked in to the ballroom _alone_. It was one thing to turn a girl down when you had already said yes to someone else, but that clearly hadn't been the case last night, and he didn't have anyone with him now. So the guy couldn't have shrugged her off because he wanted to ask someone else to the dance either.

Which was bothersome, because Weiss was looking over his shoulder where he could hear Neptune and his friends talking, and while she hadn't been filled with ecstasy at the start of the party, now she was a bit like a slug. Her body was going through the motions of dancing, but there was no smile on her face; which while faint had been there before Neptune walked through the door.

It was bothering her, the mystery of why Neptune had turned her down, and - quite frankly - it was getting on his nerves.

Mercury raised his hand from her side - forcing her to stop dancing when he became still himself - to tip her chin up with his fingers, so her eyes met his instead of the boy - who likely wasn't even paying attention to the effect he was having on Weiss. "Is there something bothering you? You seem distracted. If you want to sit down for a bit or if you need some air-"

"That's not it." Weiss was trying to twist her head to the side by a fraction, probably to check what Neptune was doing now with his friends.

He slid two fingers beneath her chin, using his thumb to redirect her gaze back to him. "Are you sure? You seem different since we started dancing." With a firm but gentle grip on her she couldn't move her head without some obvious effort. Something she didn't seem to be keen on displaying, so instead of moving her head her gaze simply dropped down away from his own when he continued, pretending to guess why she was acting this way. "Are you looking for someone?"

Her body froze for a moment, a clear indicator that he had 'guessed' right. Those eyes of hers flickered up to meet his own. "Yes."

It was a simple enough answer, but he needed to hear the reason behind it, even if he already knew. "Did something happen between the two of you?"

Weiss' gaze shifted before settling back on him. "I had asked him to come to the dance with me before."

Now he was getting somewhere, to the point where he could use the information he knew - or recently gained in her eyes. "He turned you down?" it wasn't hard to slip a sense of disbelief into his voice.

"He said he couldn't, but..."

"He came to the dance with someone else?" It was the appropriate thing to think in a situation like this, usually.

"No." Weiss was quick to answer, but she didn't offer up any further explanation. Not like she would have had to.

Her gaze had dropped away from him again, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get her to look at him again, not right now anyways. Mercury didn't say a word, just let go of her chin, released her hand from where he had held it when they were dancing and brought his arms around her, hands joining together at the small of her back, pulling her towards him.

She stumbled forward, cheek pressed against his chest, and she seemed to go still for a second before he started to sway with her in his arms.

Weiss seemed to relax after a few seconds, muscles no longer wound tight. He ran a single thumb over her back in a circular motion as he swayed, making it less obvious that they weren't dancing anymore.

It was hardly difficult to see what was bothering her now, to the point where she wouldn't even look at him. After telling him that he supposed most guys would think she had accepted his invitation to make the other guy jealous. A stupid misconception, really. If that had been the case she would have walked by Neptune with him at her side as much as she could, to catch his eye and make him wish he had said yes to her the other night. She would have tried to put up a fake screen of happiness, not get sad the moment he walked in.

She clearly thought that's where his thoughts were going when she first said that, but hopefully this assured her otherwise. He couldn't have her thinking that he would think that about her - especially when it wasn't true. His intentions toward her may not be honorable, but it wouldn't help him if she thought he believed her to be a bitch or something.

_~ J ~_

"Uh, wait." Jaune began to turn around as Pyrrha headed back to the ballroom, still looking more towards the ground than the empty air in front of her. But he stopped when he saw Neptune walking out from the doors.

"Hey, uh, Jaune, right?"

He couldn't hold back a sigh before he replied, "Yeah." Jaune had actually managed to forget about Neptune and what he had done while Pyrrha was here, but now with her gone... he could feel himself getting angry at the other boy once more.

"This party's pretty lame, huh? I mean, ballroom dancing, pfft." Did he forget that it was Weiss - and Yang - who had put the party together in the first place? How could he say something like that so casually?

"Yeah," he said again. It was the only thing he could say to that, without blowing up or something that is.

"Cute girls, though. Am I right?" Okay, that did it.

Jaune growled softly under his breath before turning around to glare at the other boy. "Is that all you think about?"

"Huh?" How could he look so clueless?

"Do you even care about the girls you're hitting on? How they feel about you?" Jaune asked, getting even angrier at Neptune's continued confusion.

"Woah." Neptune raised his hands into the air, palms open for just a second. In a complete, 'slow down' fashion. "Where's this coming from?" It was as if he didn't know what he was talking about, or getting at for that matter.

"How could you just turn her down like that?" Jaune finally asked the question he had wanted to ask since he heard about the events that had transpired the other night from Ruby - most of them anyway.

"Wait. W-who?" Was he seriously still confused?

"Weiss!" Jaune nearly shouted the name, hardly believing it took mentioning her name for Neptune to finally get it. For him to actually respond.

"I uh..." Neptune rubbed nervously at the back of his neck, actually fidgeting under Jaune's hard gaze now. "It uh... it just didn't work out, you know?"

"What?" He could hardly believe his ears. "You think you're too cool? Too many other options? _Weiss Schnee_ asked _you_ to the dance. What in the world could possibly keep you from going-"

"Can't dance," Neptune interrupted, actually looking away from him when he spoke.

Jaune paused, trying to piece together what he had just heard. "Beg your pardon?"

"I can't dance, man." Neptune said, still not looking at him.

Okay, so he _had_ heard him right the first time. "But, you're so... cool."

"Thank you. I try really _really_ hard." Neptune finally met his gaze again.

Still, he didn't really understand... "You would rather break a girl's heart and go to a dance alone? Then just admit you can't move in rhythm to music?" Jaune asked, disbelief evident in his voice. It was just such a small thing to get tripped up over.

"That about sums it up, yeah."

Neptune had readily admitted to it again, and he wasn't sure why he had gotten so upset with him over something like dancing. Granted, he thought there had been a different reason why he had turned Weiss down, something more... malicious. _This_ wasn't what he had expected.

"Well," Jaune turned around to look over the balcony rather than at Neptune as he spoke, "I certainly feel a lot better about myself."

"Please don't tell anybody." He sighed softly to himself; he wouldn't do that, it had just surprised him, that's all. It was such a simple thing to correct, or maybe he only thought that because he had seven sisters. "Look, if you want Weiss, she's all yours. I don't want to get in your way."

Commendable, maybe. But he wasn't the one she was interested in. That fact had been made very clear to him last night, it was Neptune she had asked to the dance afterall. Him and... that mystery guy.

"It's fine," he brushed it off as he turned around, leaning back against the rail. "She never accepted my invintation to the dance, no matter how many times I asked."

"What do you mean?" Neptune must have heard the sullen undertone in his voice.

Jaune sighed. If he really didn't already know... "She came to the dance with another guy. I guess he asked her after you told her no."

"Oh..." Neptune glanced back to the door behind him, where the party was continuing without either of them. Where Weiss must still be dancing with that guy. Whoever he was... he was the lucky one out of the three of them. That much was obvious.

Still... "She was looking at you earlier." Jaune remembered that plain as day, and Neptune should know. Out of the two of them it was him who had a chance with her. "Just go talk to her. I guarantee it will make her night."

"Thanks. You're a really cool guy, Jaune." Neptune walked forward, offering up a half-closed hand.

"Alright. Don't lie to my face." Jaune stepped forward to bump his fist against Neptune's, watching a second later as he walked back into the ballroom. He sighed to himself. "Right. Only one thing left to do."

_~ M ~_

Weiss had hooked an arm around him while they were swaying, and she hadn't moved it since he had been able to coax her into dancing again. Something he mainly did to stop anyone from staring. Once he was done with her he would need to be able to fall back into the shadows, to be forgotten rather than recognized.

A task that wouldn't be too easy considering she was the heiress, but he wouldn't have gone after her if he didn't think he couldn't get away with it.

He had been able to move them closer to a corner of the ballroom, not really hidden, but they weren't in the middle of the party any longer. She had actually smiled at him the moment she realized what he had done, something he hadn't entirely expected, but a bonus was a bonus.

So he nearly gritted his teeth when he heard a voice come from his right. "Uh, hey, Weiss. Can I talk with you for a moment?"

His hand slid up her back, drawing her closer to him the moment he heard Neptune's voice. Weiss had turned her head to look at him, but there was a second of silence in the air after Mercury had pulled her closer.

"It's alright," Weiss said, one hand placed on his chest. She seemed to have taken his behavior to be in more of a protective light rather than possesive. It made sense after she told him what had happened, even without saying exactly who the guy had been, though it wasn't entirely accurate.

He had noticed that she was interested in Neptune and he didn't really care for the guy to be asking anything of her after shooting her down like that. Mostly because it would be easiest to get rid of him and turn her attention elsewhere if he didn't walk back up and possibly apologize for it, giving her hope. He wouldn't be able to get anything he wanted from her if a kid took her from him. Partially because he couldn't deter her here from accepting this invintation to talk, and he already knew her answer.

"Are you sure?" he asked, letting his hands fall away from her the moment she nodded her head.

"Yeah." Weiss stepped back before she turned to Neptune. "Come on." She began to walk off, leading him towards a pair of chairs against the wall, but she stopped short, turning back around to face him. Neptune seemed to hesitate as well when she did this. "Thank you," Weiss said with a smile, and then she was turning away again, but he could only smile after her.

At the very least he had made a lasting impression on her.

Mercury moved over to the stairs a moment later, ascending the steps to the second floor, where he had seen Emerald dissappear to earlier. It didn't take him very long to find her, as she was looking down at the dancers from one of the small inner balconies. "Not having fun?"

Her head snapped in his direction as he stepped forward, leaning against the rail to see if the dancers were as boring as Emerald's former expression made them out to be. "Did you have enough fun?" He chuckled just thinking about the glare she was giving to the side of his head now.

The party downstairs looked more lively when he had left. That Jaune kid and what appeared to be the rest of his team, including Pyrrha were dancing below. Though, the audience was mostly entertained by the fact the boy was wearing a dress. The four of them were the center of attention, but... was that girl doing the robot? Along with a guard from that strict military country? "Heh." Emerald had really been bored watching this?

"Merc."

He sighed softly, glancing to Emerald. "What?"

If it weren't for the people below them, the fact that anyone could look up at any moment and see them, she might have actually hit him. "What were you thinking when you decided to do what you're doing?" Oh, she couldn't even yell at him properly in case someone overheard their conversation.

"That it would be fun," he replied, turning to look at her, now leaning on the wall that hid them from immediate view from anyone in the hall.

Emerald just glared at him, crossing her arms as she rolled her eyes. "So you haven't had enough?"

"I haven't even started." Even _he_ wasn't that fast. Besides, with Weiss he wasn't just after the money, or dust for that matter. It would hardly be entertaining if that's all he took from the Schnee Company.

"So?" He raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what it was now. "When were you going to inform the rest of us?"

"At my earliest convienence, of course." Emerald growled softly at his words. "Joking. I would've said something earlier, but I figured you would put it together at the dance. And look, you did. Your skills of observation are as impeccable as always."

"Mercury, you better know what you're doing or-"

"Ironwood is leaving."

"Huh?" Emerald began to turn, probably to check, but stopped, before turning back to face him and speaking into the reciever while she continued to scowl at him. "Ironwood just left," she informed Cinder. "What should we do?"

"Nothing." He could hear Cinder's voice clearly, as if she were standing right next to him. "We're done here."

Mercury pushed off from the wall, extending a hand towards Emerald. "Shall we?"

She looked at his hand as if she were contemplating ways to cut it off. Then she sighed, taking it and pulling him towards the stairs. "Hurry up, we should have been down there already."

"Well, you didn't need to be up here so soon yourself."

"Then aren't you lucky that that kid pulled Weiss away from you when he did, because I wasn't coming down to fetch you."

He could feel his lips pull down into a frown. "If you came straight up here, does that mean I have the honor of your first dance for the night?"

"Ha, you seriously expected me to just stand around while you fooled around?"

"Yes."

Emerald shot him a glare. "You better remember what you just said."

"It pissed you off, didn't it? How could I forget?"

"Mercury, shut the hell up."

He laughed softly as they descended down the stairs, moving onto the ballroom where they danced for a few minutes. Until-

"May I cut in?" Cinder stood just behind Emerald with a mischevious smile.

"Of course." Emerald stepped back immediately, clearly happy to move away from him again. It almost made him laugh.

Cinder stepped forward, placing one hand on his chest, the other thrown over his shoulder in an almost lazy fashion. She was dancing closer than any of the other students dared.

"And how's your night been?"

"Mm, a little more exciting than expected." Her lips curled up just slightly. "I heard your's was equally interesting."

"A different sort of exciting. I didn't overstep any boundaries, did I?"

"Hardly," Cinder said with a laugh. "That would require boundaries."

"So then, what now?"

"Enjoy the rest of the night. Afterall, it _is_ a party."


	5. Ups and Downs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...i am so totally mature.

"Hurry up," Emerald snapped, turning to look back at Mercury who was walking a couple yards behind her. Cinder was ahead of her, but didn't make any comment to either of them as Emerald came to a halt, clearly waiting for him to catch up.

He held back a yawn, only because he didn't want to hear Emerald complaining about it for the millionth time since the second she had gotten up. "Aren't you amicable today?"

"Well, if you hadn't slept in we wouldn't be running late." Emerald seemed to think reminding him of this 'fact' was the best way to get him to move faster.

So, of course, he slowed his walk even further just to irritate her that much more. "I would like to point out that you're not running, and there's still another minute on the clock before you could be considered late. Besides," he continued even as Emerald narrowed her eyes at him. "You won't be missing out on anything by being late. We're just grabbing a mission to perform over the next couple days, it's not an issue if-"

"Yes, it is." Emerald practically stomped over to him, and he came to a stop, not about to walk around her. He really didn't care to be on time and sit through a speech, he had sat through enough lectures at this academy already. All Mercury really wanted to do was go out and kill some Grimm for one of these missions, sparring with these children and being unable to draw blood was boring. "We are suppose to be fitting in, not causing a scene, Mercury."

While he knew what she was referring to... "Aren't teams suppose to be comprised of four people? We only have three, since we're missing Neo."

Emerald looked like she was going to hit him over the head, so he leaned against the wall, partially so he wouldn't be hit too quickly; that and he was getting tired of standing. Due to a pair of voices ahead of them and the sound of footsteps coming from a connecting path she seemed to think better of it, though. Instead settling with a simple, "Shut up, Mercury."

He sighed softly, as if it hurt him to hear her say that for the millionth time. Really, how often had she told him that since he began working with her and Cinder? "Next you'll be telling me to _fuck up_."

"Ugh." Emerald's face twisted into one of disgust. "Save it for the heiress-" she stopped mid-sentence; she actually stopped, and grinned at him. "Oh. I get why Cinder isn't worried about you doing your little waltz with _her_ the other night."

The corner of his lips turned down. "We didn't waltz." Why the hell did she suddenly look so happy? Like she was going to burst out laughing at any second? "And what's that suppose to mean?"

Emerald's grin widened, eyes practically sparkling in delight. Well, she had certainly forgotten the fact that she was running late rather quickly. "Wait. You seriously haven't thought about it? What you just decided on all of this a couple days ago without putting any sort of thought into it?"

He raised his brow at her, wondering why she was inching closer, lowering her voice even though everyone else - along with Cinder - would be in the main hall right now. There was no one to eavesdrop on them. If there had been she wouldn't have spoken so freely about the heiress just a moment ago. "Are you getting at something? Or you going to leave me here to dangle?"

Emerald laughed suddenly, throwing a hand up to cover her mouth as she giggled around her fingers. "Aren't you leaving yourself out to dangle? You're not just after the money and the dust, are you?"

"No." He had thought she had already figured out his intentions concerning Weiss. So why was she-

"Your legs, Merc. What are you going to do about your damn legs?"

He didn't reply, opting to hold his tongue as Emerald's giggling got even louder.

"Did you even think about that? No one can know about them, you know Cinder wants to use that secret to her advantage somehow in the tournament. So what are you going to do? Is it just going to be awkward with her completely naked while you can never take off your pants? Not completely anyway." Emerald took a second to catch her breath, needing the air after all that talking and giggling. "You got to be mindful of that thigh metal," she added, bursting out laughing a second later.

Mercury watched her silently as she wrapped her arms around her stomach, laughing like a complete maniac. He would rather be listening to whatever stupid speech everyone else was being made to suffer through right now rather than this.

"Em?"

Emerald chuckled, wiping at the corner of her eyes with a finger before she met his gaze. "Yes?"

"Shut up."

And she doubled over laughing once again, hands resting on her thighs as her entire body shook.

Mercury pushed off from the wall he had been leaning against, walking around her and down the hall. That speech better be over, because now he really wanted to kill something. Oh, and for Emerald to stop laughing like some sort of damn monkey. Her joke wasn't _that_ funny.

"Get a hold of yourself and move your sass," he quipped, pushing open the side door to the main hall.

The sound of the door opening seemed to snap Emerald back to the present, and the fact that they were suppose to be at the main hall already. Since she stopped laughing a second after she heard the noise, though from the softer giggling sounds behind him she was going to need a few more seconds until she had completely reined herself in.

"-As second year students, you will be tasked with a mission, watched over by a professional huntsmen or huntress. Some of you may be taken out of the kingdom for several days, others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."

It would seem he had walked in right at the end of Ozpin's speech. A good thing, considering how this morning was going already. It was just full of annoyances that he wanted to avoid, like Emerald.

He made his way across the room to where Cinder was standing, scrolling through a list of missions. She stops on one just as he reaches her. _Perimeter Defense_. _Security Upgrade. Vale._

Pure gold for Cinder, really. She would be able to see what this security upgrade was and if it would be something she needed to deal with for her plans to come to fruition. And they didn't have to worry about a hunter or huntress noticing her interest in it, either. Cinder had made sure they would be one of the handful of teams that didn't get an escort on their mission.

"We good to go?" He wanted to leave this school as soon as possible, preferably before Emerald made her way across the room, if she had managed to compose herself by now.

"Yes." Cinder typed their team name, _CEMN_ into the computer, accepting the mission with a smirk on her lips. "The first year teams are getting ready." There was a sultry tone to her voice when she spoke, clearly teasing him on the matter. Perhaps she had thought that he wanted to go and talk with Weiss before she left and that's why he was being 'antsy.'

"Cinder-"

"Right." It was an excuse he could use to leave the main hall, and he was taking it.

Mercury walked away from the two of them at a moderate pace, not too fast as he didn't want to trigger Emerald into another round of laughter at the moment. Maybe later when she was busy fighting Grimm, but not right now.

A sigh of relief escaped him once he exited the main hall, moving past the main door and into the courtyard. He could see team RWBY but he had no intention of going over, not right now anyway. She was going to be leaving shortly, it was obvious from the bags the girls were carrying. That, and one of their professors was zipping around in front of them, saying they were behind schedule. Even if he wanted to talk to her he wouldn't be able to.

Mercury started to walk across the courtyard, but he continued to watch Weiss from the corner of his eye. It was only when he heard a shout that he stopped and turned to look at just what was going on over there. "Save the world! You're going on world saving missions without us? I'm hurt! Sad! Maybe a little hungry... That last one's not your fault though, Ren." Another hyperactive girl, Nora, a part of team JNPR, was being loud and obnoxious.

So much so that Weiss and her team had turned around to face their friends.

"Sounds exciting. Where you going?" that Jaune fellow asked, oddly enough he wasn't looking at Weiss with droopy puppy eyes today. Perhaps he realized the other night that it was a lost cause. It would be nice if that was the reason anyway.

"Oh, just outside the kingdom." So he was right in assuming he wouldn't be seeing Weiss for awhile. That was fine, he needed to figure out how to use her familial connection and the lousy security surrounding it to get the money and dust he wanted.

"Hey, so are we!"

"Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby village," Pyrrha added on to the louder girl's comment.

"We set out tomorrow."

"Then you can party with us tonight!" His eyes narrowed upon seeing Neptune slip into the group. Weiss had forgiven him for his transgression pretty easily, not to mention that she was clearly interested in him. He would need to change that if his plans were going to run smoothly. "We're shadowing a crime specialist. All inner city detective stuff. We get junior badges."

Something Jaune seemed excited about, if one took his reaction to the news of _badges_ into consideration. He could have sworn that the two of them had been at odds before, likely because of Weiss. Clearly he was missing something that had happened at the party between them, but so far it looked like Jaune had backed off, and Neptune...

"We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk. So we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, you know, normal."

"Well-"

"Four minutes ladies!" The professor interrupted Ruby with a shout, 'waiting' next to the bullhead.

"Well, uh, wish us luck."

With that the teams separated, Weiss heading towards the bullhead with the rest of her team, while the other one and half made their way back to the academy. He found his gaze fixated on Neptune rather than Weiss, though.

The guy tried _way_ too hard to act cool, even now as he continued to talk to team JNPR about making plans to go to the city together, suggesting dance clubs and the like. But he was putting an emphasis on 'not blowing them up,' which was causing the others to laugh.

He actually remembered hearing his partner's voice through Weiss scroll back at the CCT. So they had clearly been there with Ruby and Co. that night when she had run off to assist her team, who had been causing more trouble for Roman at the time. An issue that probably wasn't resolved if he took Nora's words from before into account. Ruby was still being troublesome, but with some work he might be able to take Weiss out of the picture for some future incidents.

Of course, that meant dealing with Neptune in some way, or simply making Weiss' focus shift entirely to him. The problem being that neither option would actually be simple.

It didn't help that Neptune wasn't backing off like Jaune evidently had. No, he was still trying to interact with Weiss in more than just a friendly manner.

Last night had really made it clear to him that Neptune was the only threat to his plans. Especially after Neptune had called her 'Snow Angel' - he had heard the nickname while dancing with Cinder, who didn't appear to be listening to the two talking, but hadn't said a thing when he had maneuvered them closer so he could listen in to their conversation. Weiss had blushed heavily at those words, a fierce red rather than the softer pink tone he had managed to get out of her.

It was certainly better than calling her Ice Queen, and seeing the effect it had on her... well, it was frustrating to say the least.

"Need a measuring tape?"

He nearly cursed aloud when he heard Emerald behind him, glancing over his shoulder to glare at her. "No. Do you know which ship we're taking?"

This wasn't something he wanted to get into right now, or ever for that matter. He wanted to tear into a Grimm, since he couldn't very well blast another student to pieces. If his plans went out of the window just because of one hormonal teenager-

"I know that only one of you can show your bullhead without any trouble." His eyes narrowed as Emerald giggled. She was _still_ going on about that?

He didn't entertain her further with another word, instead looking back to the group of six that were talking amongst themselves, not looking where they were going.

"Huh? Woah!" The faunus leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding running into the woman that had been approaching the teams since leaving the main hall.

This caused a chain reaction, making the other five halt, thinking they were about to run into her teammates as well, looking surprised when it was just her standing there, now placing her scroll into her pocket. Just after acting as if it had been taking up her full attention.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha apologized for all of them. "We weren't looking where we were going."

"That's all right," Cinder replied smoothly, those amber eyes of hers shifting over each person in the group. She was no longer wearing her school uniform, instead using the battle outfit that had been designed for the infiltration of this academy. "You're students at this academy, right?"

"Well, they are." A tail was pointed in the direction of the other team. "But we're from Mistral."

"Oh?" Cinder raised a brow in mock interest at the faunus that had spoken. "Which year are you in?" A rhetorical question. What was Cinder doing?

"Year one." The faunus said it with such pride that he almost rolled his eyes. "I'm Sun, the leader of team SSSN. So it's easy to remember, and this is Neptune," Sun added, jerking a thumb in his partner's direction.

"Yo." Neptune said with a wave.

"Nice to meet you."

As Cinder's gaze settled on the other team, Jaune jumped into action. "Oh, um, my name's Jaune, leader of team JNPR. This is Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren," he gestured to each team member as he introduced them, oblivious to the fact that Cinder already knew all their names, and the abilities of their team idol.

This didn't stop her from acting the part, though. "Pyrrha Nikos? I saw you spar in class. It was a good match, I can just imagine how you would perform against a horde of Grimm. Especially since they're far less coordinated than a team of hunters. I bet you could take down a hundred or more before you became the slightest bit fatigued."

Pyrrha stood up a little straighter at the unexpected praise. "Well, that's very kind of you to say, but I don't think even I would be capable of that."

Cinder smiled. "You don't give yourself enough credit. Even if you couldn't do it now, I'm sure you would be capable enough in the future."

"Thank you."

Before Cinder could reply Sun spoke, "So, what about you? What year are you in and stuff?"

She turned to him without missing a beat, smile still in place. "Second year. I'm the leader of team CEMN from Haven." Sun's eyes widened a bit at that, considering it was the same academy him and Neptune were from Mercury couldn't say he was surprised. But should Cinder really be saying that? The name stuck out, you would think even a first year from the same school would have heard about it, and by all accounts he seemed oblivious - shocked, really. Not the sort of reaction you expected from a 'fellow' student. "My name is Cinder, but you're probably more familiar with Niara. She joined my team after our last member chose a different path in life. It was a tragedy what happened to her old team." _Oh._

"Yeah, that was something else." Sun scratched at the back of his head for a second. "Give Niara our blessings... Uh, when she gets back from Haven that is. I know she's staying with her family right now after what happened. But it's good to hear she entered into the tournament after everything."

"I'll be sure to give her your message." Cinder turned back to Jaune, who seemed to be at a loss for words. In part because he had no idea who they were just talking about, but clearly understood that something horrible had happened since Sun and Neptune were both completely silent now. "Do you know where docking platform four is?"

"It'll be on your right. The second one you see," Pyrrha answered for Jaune, one hand clasped on her leader's shoulder in what was probably suppose to be a soothing gesture. The implication of Cinder's earlier words must have gotten to him, along with the realization behind them. Just because you were in-training didn't mean you were safe.

"Thank you. I hope we'll see eachother again and be able to talk technique."

"Of course." Pyrrha replied in a friendly manner, but she was clearly more concerned about Jaune at the moment, since he had just gone pale a second ago.

Despite the cold air that had descended over the group Cinder gave a wave as she said goodbye, walking towards him and Emerald a moment later. While her smile might have been friendly, her gaze no longer held a warmth within them, but a hungry flame that was just waiting for the fruit to ripen. "Let's go."

As Cinder walked past towards platform four Mercury glanced back to the group, meeting Pyrrha's gaze for a second before he turned sharply, following after Cinder. So that's what she had been doing.

It was unfortunate he couldn't smile at the moment, especially with a pair of eyes burning into his back. Just watching that had gotten his blood pumping, and now he was ready for another elaborate kill, but he would have to settle for some Grimm.


	6. Crystalline Root

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this chapter we'll be out of season 2 and into... something else?

There was dark smoke curling all around him, the air was thick with the stench of the creatures that moved within it, snarling as fangs were bared and claws flashed in the shadows of the trees, catching only air.

Mercury twisted and jumped out of reach, kicking and firing shots simultaneously. Causing a flash of light that illuminated a set of claws pushed back by an aura bullet, a deep red running down them as they sunk into the flesh of the beowulf next to it. White bone sticking out one of four arms, causing more smoke to rise, filling the clearing completely.

He could hardly see anything in the thick of it, but he could _hear_ them - Grimm - shoving past bushes, knocking down trees to get to him. A couple dozen maybe, but it was all one writhing mass to him; reaching out to chomp on an arm and getting a bullet down the throat instead when it's jaw locked around metal.

It released his right leg a second later and he struck it in the temple with his other boot, sending it flying to hit whatever was in the smoke directly behind it. A tree, maybe; or another Grimm. It would be up again in a second: stomach torn open, blood soaking into the grass beneath it, but it would still make it's way back to him.

Grimm didn't feel pain or emotion; that's what made them the perfect pawn. They would keep fighting - keep tearing at your flesh - until they were dead. There was no limitation set on how far they could go to achieve their goal: eating up fear, pain, tears, panic, drawn blood, _hatred_. They had no soul, but they were capable of learning.

And once they had the knowledge to fight humans more efficiently their bodies _changed_ : bones twisting, muscle collapsing then expanding to compensate for this knowledge. They got bigger, stronger, not just smarter. They transcended their status as a pawn, becoming more useful to Cinder. Becoming something to actually be _feared_.

Not just some pesky wild _rabid_ mutt, that would bite at a hand offered to them with a handful of teeth. They became like an alligator, sliding along the riverbed unnoticed, striking from the shallow - safe - waters, clamping down onto their victim and rolling with more than six dozen teeth; until the creature went limp in their jaws and they would move on to the next.

Something more simple minded that could stand there and stare at the casing of black flesh that boiled within. Something that didn't run, didn't move a muscle no matter how close they got. Something - one - that _grinned_ with a promise to fill the void.

The rising theory was that they killed for sustenance. That's why they couldn't stay _caged_ ; why they died in captivity. Otherwise they could just live on the frustration of scientists trying to understand them - it was a negative emotion.

_That's what made them so hard to replicate: the blood, the steel, the hunger; that cut deeper with each twist of the blade, drawing out flesh and bone alike. Until the only colors that mattered were grey and copper._

That thing that filled his nose, left a metallic taste in his mouth. _Blood_ \- or rather the thinning vapor that surrounded him.

A single ursa limped through the smoke, it's left hind leg gone, having evaporated into the air the moment it had split from the main body. It growled at him as it moved forward, coming to a stop just a meter away to roar at his face, and then attempting to launch itself at him with it's front legs. A few well-placed kicks - and shots - got rid of them as well. The ursa slumped forward, teeth chomping on the grass where he had stood before. Mercury placed his boot on it's skull and fired, the echo of the bullet filling the air as nothing else moved.

The area was clear, for now.

He sighed, stretching his limbs out a bit after that warm up. Mercury started making his way back to the wall where Cinder and Emerald would be, having stuck closer to the engineers as they worked on upgrading the security system, and repaired parts that were found broken. They might as well since they were here instead of sending for another group to come out and do it, which would need hunters to protect them, and it could take awhile until even other hunters 'in-training' would be sent out to help again.

"Hm?" Emerald looked up when his boots crunched over some leaves when he came out of the forest, but then she went right back to looking out at the field. Thankfully she had stopped teasing him since yesterday morning, mind preoccupied with their mission. Hopefully it would stay like that even afterwards, he really didn't want to listen to her whispering about 'thigh metal' and 'bullheads' into his ear.

But he doubted he would receive that small mercy. Emerald got bored as well, frustrated... and she couldn't take any of that out on Cinder; not that she would. He was pretty sure that Emerald worshiped the ground Cinder walked on; the thing was it was just dirt, concrete, nothing to get so excited over.

Though, she certainly thought that Cinder saw his interest in Weiss as some passive fun; a kitten he couldn't actually play with, and _that's_ why she tolerated his behavior. As if it were the truth, that she would know it - as if _he_ even knew.

It wasn't that he was surprised back at the dance when Cinder took notice of his play thing. He was pretty sure she didn't care, that there was no real reason for her to. Mercury wasn't going to be throwing out all their plans to get at the Schnee heiress, something Em didn't seem to quite understand. Or rather Emerald believed that he was growing to screw up and that Cinder would need to change her plans to accommodate his slip-up.

The thing is, if Cinder was really concerned about any of that she would have told him to back off from Weiss, and he would have. _If_ she was concerned, but she wasn't. At least, she hadn't said anything of the sort; in fact, Cinder seemed amused if nothing else. Like she was at the last screening of some crappy movie just to see if it was as bad as everyone else said it was. It was more like she wanted to sit back and watch the new content added to the movie, just to see how it would effect the characters. If it would result in a train-wreck or not.

Something else for her to laugh at in the end.

Cinder turned away from the engineers as they started to get things cleaned up after installing the upgrade for the day. He could tell when she caught sight of him in her peripheral vision as her lips twisted into that grin before she began to walk towards him.

Mercury stopped walking, not wanting to go any further from the forest - he wanted to get another round in before they left. "They're done?"

"For today," Cinder replied, making a motion with her hand, signalling that she wanted to talk further from the wall. Mercury simply stepped the few paces back into the forest so that he was partially obscured by the trees and undergrowth. Cinder came to a stop once she was in the tree line, no longer concerned with someone overhearing something they shouldn't when she spoke, "Leon of the VSC goes to The Rain-forest Buffet for lunch at one every day unless he's in a meeting."

That got his attention. "Is he the one that asked for the upgrades?'

"Yes, but he wants to push for more." Something that could disrupt her plans, then. "This isn't public knowledge yet. He plans to bring it up at a rally on Thursday. The company at large is interested in private homes, of course. I want it to stay that way." In fewer words: I want you to kill him.

"I'll take care of it."

"Good." There was a moment of silence. "The bullhead will be here in ten minutes. Make sure you're ready." With that Cinder turned and walked back out into the field, heading back towards the wall. Where Emerald had gotten up, gripping her weapons as she looked east.

Mercury turned and disappeared back into the forest, taking care to listen for Grimm that might be approaching the wall from the thick sea of green as he walked. It was pretty quiet for the time being, though. He had killed the ones in the immediate vicinity already - that might mess with the engineers as they upgraded security and performed minor patches on the wall. So there was nothing else for him to do but think, which he hadn't planned to do until later, but then that boy came back into focus. _Neptune._

His hands still curled into fists when he thought about the only real obstacle to his goal. It would be so much better if Weiss wasn't interested in him, or he just backed off like Jaune had - he still didn't know what had caused that, not that it mattered either way.

He was able to go the dance with her, but he hadn't left with her. Actually, he was pretty sure she left with her friends rather than Neptune, but it didn't change the fact that she had been with him for the rest of the dance, and it hadn't been because he had to leave to find Emerald. It was because Neptune came over looking guilty that she had gone with him; that and her interest in the blue-haired kid. Because he called her Snow Angel, as opposed to her highly popular nickname; Ice Queen. Which was unflattering to say the least, unlike the words snow - softer - and angel - nicer. Neptune was the only one that used that nickname for her as far as he could tell.

And it made her blush and practically preen when _he_ said it.

But he couldn't very well start doing that himself, not that he would want to. If he was going to give her a pet name of sorts - and he was - it wouldn't be the same one some other guy used, or even one she had heard before. What would be the point if it was? If it wasn't unique to her, something he used just for her, then... it wouldn't be something to be considered 'special' and he needed that to get her and everything else he wanted from her.

The solution of course was to come up with one; part of a larger solution to his problem really. There was just one other problem that sprouted from this trail of thinking: coming up with the damned thing.

Which would need to be saved for later judging by the sounds of something large tearing through the forest.

Mercury jumped up the moment the Grimm came bursting through a tall bush, boots aimed right at it's face when it emerged and fired the bullets required into it's brain so that it slumped down onto the forest floor a second later, already dissolving as a half dozen followed it into certain death. Nailed in the head with a bullet, or a viscous kick that cracked the neck and ripped it right from the spine.

He toyed with the last one, remembering what Cinder had said about them leaving soon. Simply kicking it from tree to tree, walking over as it reoriented itself before sending it flying again. Of course it just growled at him each time, as if it were frustrated about not sinking it's teeth into a juicy morsel. As if it would even take the time to taste anything before moving on to the next kill.

Mercury could hear the chopping blades of the bullhead, signaling his loss of time and put more force into his next kick, firing a shot afterwards to finish it. The Grimm landed on a bush, crushing it beneath the weight of it's body before that very body began to disperse into the air. Beyond the cloud of black were a few specks of white, some flowers tucked away in the roots of a looming tree, though it didn't have much in the way of traditional petals. The petal-like spathe bract was white, shaped like a funnel that enclosed the center. He recognized it from a store in the city of Vale.

Hm.

He took an extra minute to come out of the forest, just to annoy Emerald. Cinder may have told him when the bullhead would be there, but she didn't say that he had to be there that very minute, and that's usually how Emerald would take those words. As an order rather than a suggestion, so it was funny to see Emerald glaring at him when he came out of the trees, muttering under her breath that he was late.

Even if he couldn't hear her he could see her lips move, knew that Cinder would hear her since she was already sitting in the bullhead - right next to her, actually - so she had to have heard Em complain about him for the millionth time. Just like every other time though she didn't raise her head, not even throwing a glance his way, just kept 'playing' with her scroll.

She only acknowledged him when he stepped into the bullhead, raising one finger in either a wave or 'uhuh' motion - the most minimal commitment needed when reprimanding someone. The kind of thing a small child would stick their tongue out at. Mercury just grabbed the handle, turning to look back at the forest when a siren went off.

It was blaringly loud, coming from the speaker system on the wall, the lights on top flashing red. Which only ever meant one thing: there was Grimm in the city, but judging by the type of alarm they hadn't blasted through the wall. Roman had screwed up again.

Mercury turned just quickly enough to see Cinder with a barely there frown on her face, swiping something on her scroll as she turned to the pilot's cabinet. Emerald had slapped her hands over her ears, but they were falling now as she looked even more annoyed than just a second ago. Evidently she had come to the same conclusion as the rest of them. "What? Thi-" Cinder's elbow struck her in the rib and she nearly yelped, stopping herself as she winced from the jab.

"Take us into the city," Cinder told the pilot as she stood up, walking over to the open door of the bullhead and gazing outward as she slipped her scroll into a pocket.

A number of minutes passed - he didn't pay attention to how many - before the bullhead was hovering over the city of Vale. The scene below was absolute chaos and he could hear Cinder breathe deep to his left, in anticipation of what was going to happen at the Vytal Festival - how much worse it would be.

There was Grimm everywhere, quite obviously having come from the hole to the south of the courtyard - where the rails for the train used to end - some were dead, but for the time being there was plenty of live ones running around. Those were being cut down by the hunters and huntresses that had already came to the aid of their city, and right in the middle of it all was team RWBY. The earth was cracked around them as they were only fighting near where they had come out evidently, not a bad position considering it's also where the Grimm had come from, but not the most strategic. The monkey faunus and that boy were there to, along with team CFVY.

Between the two and a half teams they were cleaning up quickly.

His gaze zeroed in on Weiss for a moment, watching her spin and twirl, sending out ice spikes through her glyphs to punch holes into the Grimm surrounding her. She only used her weapon when they got close, piercing and slashing them with the thin blade until they fell over, dissolving back into nothing.

"Urrgh." He glanced over to where Emerald was looking when she let out the hybrid huff-growl.

Roman, of course. The fuck up.

"You know what to do." At Cinder's words he stepped off from the bullhead, closely followed by Emerald; so he was falling through the air before he hit the ground, and then dashed off at full speed. Mercury weaved through maze of streets and alleys, remembering just where the idiot had been when had had jumped off from the airship.

He cut down any Grimm in his path quickly, efficiently, no longer toying with them as he ran. The slamming of his boots against flesh, of bullets being released, ricocheted off the walls. He could hear Emerald running along the rooftops above him, cutting the straightest pathway to Roman and Neo.

When Mercury came out of the alleyway he _slammed_ his feet into Roman's side, toppling the underwhelming thug over. Almost. Emerald had the chain links of her weapon wrapped around Roman before he actually hit the ground, holding him up as she pressed a blade to his throat. It was hard for even him to tell if the threat was real or not, if it was because of Roman's screw up or in case anyone was watching from a window.

Neo 'Niara' smiled, as the rumblings of the chain on the machinery she held died down to nothing. Dressed in black, with her hair similarly colored she was in complete incognito and acting as if she had been chasing Roman previously before her 'teammates' showed up. She gave a slight nod of her head, as if to say 'thank you' for their help, before she folded the chainsaw with a flick of the button, situating it on a clasp hanging from the side of her waist.

"What happened?" Emerald hissed so low Mercury could barely hear her, and he was only standing a few feet away.

"It's always you kids," Roman began theatrically. Even tied up as he was he tried to wave his cane around; Neo took it from him before he could fire the handle off in a display of trying to get away from them. "If only dust grew like you did. I swear you're a plague on this city. I was trying to have some fun and _you_ guys just keep ruining it."

Whatever, Mercury wanted to say, but held his tongue. Barely. He knew Ruby and her team must have found him somehow, causing Roman to shoot the train off early. It was annoying, but with Ruby continually interfering it was hardly unexpected. It was just a pain in the ass.

"Come on." Emerald lowered her blade from his neck, pushing him forward in the process. "And don't try to run."

"A sinful thought like that would never cross my mind." Neo gave him a playful jab in the ribs when he spoke, accentuated with a low, "Owch. Watch it, checkers."

Mercury sighed, taking his place at Roman's unguarded side as they began their walk towards the center of the chaos. Where Atlas ships would no doubt be waiting to take Roman into custody.


	7. Alpha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a December miracle! With a Buffy reference, go find it.

The crime rate was starting to dwindle down with Roman captured, a little earlier than planned, but Cinder didn't seem too concerned with that fact. Perhaps she had expected him to screw up in some way after everything that had happened so far? It would certainly explain her lack of rage pointed in Roman's direction; or it could just be that she was more concerned with other things. Roman was where he needed to be now for when the time came and he couldn't screw things up any further while he was in a cell.

Neo - or rather Niara - was now officially with them as a team in Beacon Academy. She was playing the part of a girl scarred from seeing the deaths of her teammates by 'Grimm' perfectly. It was the reason she didn't speak, because it had disturbed her so much.

That was the story they gave when anyone was 'insensitive' enough to ask. Niara even produced tears along with a glossed over look in her eyes whenever it came up. The reason for why she joined their team was because their old team member quit in their pursuit to become a hunter. This was all fictitious, of course.

It threw off any suspicion the Atlas army and staff of the school might have fostered otherwise.

Cinder's information told them that Ozpin knew his school had been infiltrated. They had to be looking for them, but so far they had been fooled into believing they were ordinary students, with a bit of a tragic backstory.

So typically he wasn't suppose to go around killing people. But Cinder had ordered him to kill this Leon before he could do something that would cause her plans to be adjusted because of it. And he needed to have it done before the crime rate disappeared completely.

Still, at minimum it would take him two days to get the job done. He could scout the man out today since it was the weekend, and have the job done before Monday. The first day would be boring, unless he stumbled upon a golden opportunity to kill the man. Cinder had given him a little more information once the breach had been dealt with, but he would need to find the opening to kill Leon himself, without exposing who he was to the authorities or anyone else for that matter. It would just take a simple slip-up and then Ozpin and Ironwood would center their sights on his team.

That would definitely get in the way of Cinder's plans. Not that he was going to let that happen. He had already done some research last night on the location of the restaurant and the other shops around it. All Mercury had to do was observe Leon from one of those locations; he didn't want his name written down at the restaurant. The scene of the crime would be the first place police scanned for clues, and if they realized the death hadn't been planned for months in advance they would look more closely into the names in that restaurant's systems. Of course, they could branch out to the surrounding places as well... but who was going to suspect a student from one of the four kingdom's combat schools? Especially when they didn't know that that information was false.

He could easily fool the police - if they hadn't caught Roman by themselves yet, he doubted they were very capable. Mercury was more concerned with Ironwood looking further into crimes as they went down, and noticing any student having been nearby a murder might just send alarm bells ringing. Especially if they showed up once just before the murder took place.

Well, this wasn't going to be his easiest kill, but it wouldn't be the hardest either. He just had to be careful and not leave any trace that could point toward him. Still... he wished he had more time to do this, but Cinder was right; it would be easiest to kill Leon during lunch, and being off campus during that time on a weekday would be all the more suspicious. So he had to do it now, this weekend to be precise.

A weekend he would rather concentrate on Weiss, now that she and her team were back from their own mission - and Roman's colossal failure. He could see her even now, walking across the courtyard, that combat skirt fluttering in the wind around her thighs. A book was clutched in one hand, her scroll sitting on top of it as she used her other hand to tap at the screen.

Her team members were absent from the scene in front of him, though. Mercury glanced at the direction she was walking in - the library - before his gaze settled back on her. To be more specific his eyes were focused on her chest rising and falling at it's usual pace. She was always wearing so much white, even with her pale skin... it made him wonder what the exact color of her nipples were. Pink surely, but the shade... how they would look after he dragged his tongue over them a couple times... All of the specifics were a mystery, one he wanted to figure out the conclusion to as quickly as possible.

Leon was important for Cinder's plans, but not his, and to throw away a weekend... a moment when that bumbling idiot Ruby wasn't near Weiss; that would go against his own plans. Besides, didn't her sister Winter work with Ironwood? He wouldn't suspect Weiss of having killed Leon if her name came up in the lists around the murder scene, he could easily slip away with her name attached to his.

His lips slipped upwards. How did he not think of it earlier? Weiss could be his alibi, his free get-out-of-jail card.

Mercury diverted from his path to the entrance of the school, walking quickly to ensure he reached her before she even got close to the doors of the library. He fell into step behind her for an instant, letting the 'question' slip from his lips before he stopped walking so he could take in her reaction.

"Go out with me."

Weiss jumped in place, her momentum thrown off in that single second when he spoke. She teetered in the air for a moment, balance centered on the toe of her heel and a suddenly awkwardly angled ankle. Then she seemed to regain her senses and was spinning around to face him, snapping at him while jerking a finger in his direction, "Stop doing that!"

"What?" he asked, unable to keep the grin off his face.

"Sneaking up on me! This is the third time. Quit it! And... w-what did you just say?"

He had glanced down for a quick peak at her chest while she was yelling, the way her breasts seemed to swell as they pressed more firmly against the fabric of her dress when she shouted - before quickly meeting her gaze again. A smirk tugged at his lips. "Will you go out with me?"

"What?" Weiss repeated, almost as if she hadn't heard him the first time. But then her attitude quickly changed. "I just... why? I was a terrible date at the dance." Her scroll let out a _ping_ , but she didn't glance down at it, instead she seemed intent on listing out reasons why he shouldn't go out with her. "I didn't pay half as much attention to you as I should have for taking me. I was more focused on watching Neptune having fun without me, and when he finally came over I just ditched you-"

Mercury reached out to grasp her chin between his thumb and forefinger, which had nearly the same effect as it had at the dance since she trailed off from her list. Thankfully. He didn't want to hear her talking about Neptune. He wanted her to focus on him, like - as she had pointed out - she should have done at the dance. Not that it mattered anymore. It's not like he could change what had happened then. Besides, her pointing this out instead of him was a good thing, because he would have had to brought it up more discreetly if she hadn't.

"I'm just asking you to come out with me to get to know you better. I want to spend time with you even if you're not at your best." ...that sounded a bit cornier than he had intended, but he wasn't going to just let her slip away.

Girls her age liked that anyway, it was something that made them more emotionally invested in you. Saying things that you typically found in disgusting rom-coms. He felt a little sick just from imitating them. But he needed to make sure that she knew he was interested in her, and that he didn't care about what had happened at the dance.

"But you weren't the first person I asked to the dance."

The left corner of his lip twitched. Why couldn't she just drop that subject-

...did she feel that guilty about it? Or was it just because he was standing in front of her that she felt the need to say all of that? Either way... this was perfect.

Mercury had to fight down the urge to break out into a wide grin. "But I did ask _you_." And she hadn't given him a simple yes, instead asking him in turn. "Remember? I am asking you again now without the complexities of that night. If that makes your decision any easier, that is."

Weiss was quiet for only a second. "You're very cocky." The corners of his lips twitched up as he waited for her answer, not taking her comment to heart. Weiss paused, glancing down to her scroll and running a thumb over the screen - probably to see who had just tried to contact her - and then meeting his gaze. "I have a study session with my friends today-"

"You can do that tomorrow." That's when he would need to kill Leon anyway, and he couldn't bring her along for that extracurricular activity.

She narrowed her eyes at him, a scowl setting on her face, but he kept his gaze on hers. He wasn't going to leave without her. Because it wouldn't be just her friends in the library. Sun went wherever Blake went, and he had no doubt that Neptune had followed him with the belief that Weiss would be there as well. Her team might have even mentioned his presence there to her. Which explained why she had looked a little too enthusiastic about 'studying' before.

He didn't understand her interest in the other boy, and he didn't want to. He simply wanted to grab that interest and bring it around to him instead. If he had to use unorthodox methods to do it... he would be more than happy to do so.

"Maybe they do things differently at Haven, but here we have exams, and because of the tournament they're going to be earlier this year instead of around the usual time, which would interfere with the tournament. You'll be competing, won't you?" He just smirked in reply. It was required of him, and if everything worked out he could make it required for her to cheer him on even. "Unless you took your exams even earlier at Haven _you_ should be studying to."

Since monkey boy and his friend were studying with her friends he was pretty sure that wasn't the case. "You can study with me later."

She let out a huff, crossing her arms and wrenching her chin out of his grip - finally. The corner of his lips twitched up and she sent a glare his way. "I told them I would be there minutes ago and you're making me late now. We have a system that works for all of us and the best techniques for individual studying. Besides, I wouldn't have time later, we're going to be there all day."

Well, he didn't particularly like the sound of that. "Then reschedule. I want to take you out today. You'll see them tomorrow, won't you?"

"That's not-"

"I want to know what it's like to spend a whole day with you. Just the two of us, uninterrupted. If studying today is so important we can do that later, but there's a restaurant in town I want to try and I want to take _you_ with me."

Her arms lowered somewhat, her gaze flickering to her scroll. She must already be remembering what she had said minutes ago, when she was making her list of excuses to avoid him. That's what he hoped anyway, he certainly hadn't forgotten the fact that Neptune had interrupted his first technical date with her, and she clearly hadn't either seeing as she had been the one to bring it up. Now if she would just stay true to her own words, fall forward into his hands so he could mold her... that would be preferred.

For him to get her somewhere where they wouldn't be interrupted. She had sounded guilty before, this was going to be the test to see if that's how she really felt about the whole thing, or if she was really trying to avoid him for some reason.

Weiss sighed and he suppressed a grin, keeping his expression hopeful. Like a starved puppy being kicked to the curb and staring up at the last fry of some bystander... what sort of girl would say no to that look? Besides a heartless one... like Emerald for instance, but he knew Weiss wasn't as cold as she portrayed herself to be. She couldn't be with that team of hers.

She unlocked her scroll with a swipe of her thumb - did she guard it closely enough that she didn't need any security? As her fingers typed over the screen, his eyes scanned over the message she was writing to her leader.

_\- Messaging -_

_Ruby Rose_

_Something came up, I won't be able to meet you and everyone else today. Don't wait up for me any longer than you already have. I'll be busy until tonight. Sorry for the short notice._

His gaze drew back up quickly when Weiss spoke, "Which restaurant did you have in mind?"

He extended a hand silently, waiting as Weiss glanced to it, evidently debating on whether she should take it or not as she had during the dance. Not that he planned on holding her hand the whole way there or anything, like she probably thought was the case. It took another second before she slipped her fingers over his palm and he wrapped his own around her wrist. Her eyes widened just as she realized what he was actually doing; as he raised her hand up and then pressed his lips to the back of it.

"You'll see when we get there."

It had the desired effect as her cheeks gained much more than just a pink tinge. When she tugged on her hand he let it slip out from his grip, smiling at her and the deep red marks on her cheeks. Weiss rolled her eyes, turning away quickly and walking at that break-neck pace that had almost sent her stumbling into him nearly a week ago. After taking only a few steps she stopped, as if she just realized that she didn't actually know where she was going since he had refused to tell her. "Let's go then. I still want to study later so it better not be too far."

She hadn't turned around when she had spoken and he grinned as she tapped her foot against the ground, as if she were impatient to get going. But he was sure once he was close enough she would start walking once again, keeping just a step ahead of him until her skin went back to it's normal color.

He wasn't wrong, and Mercury spent the first few minutes of their walk trying to catch another glimpse at the heavy blush on her face, making Weiss huff and twist away. So close that he could feel her skirt brush against his thighs whenever she would turn away before he could accomplish his goal.

It was fine, though. He had already memorized the image of her like that anyway, he was just trying to make it more difficult for her to get rid of it. Eventually the red faded back to white and she turned to him, snapping for him to quit it or she was going to go back to the academy, and he backed off... for the time being.

When he spotted the Rain-forest Buffet he guided her to the other side of the street, scanning the buildings for a second story and choosing the first one that would accommodate his needs, and hers.

He noticed Weiss glance up at the elaborate sign as they walked in, but didn't say anything, going straight to the hostess. "Table for two. Upstairs, please. Next to the window."

"Of course." The hostess handed him a fountain pen, pointing to a empty line in the book. "Please sign here." She was already gathering a menu for both of them along with utensils as he blurred the letters of his name together. He stepped aside for Weiss to step up and write her name on the line directly beneath his. The hostess marked the next line with an x before telling them to follow her up the steps. She led them straight up the spiral steps, making a bee line for the table in the corner, placing the menus and utensils down before stepping aside so they could get to the table. "Leliana will be with you shortly. Please enjoy your meal."

"Thank you," Weiss slipped in before he could care to say such pleasantries. The hostess merely nodded her head before walking off and when Weiss took a step toward the table Mercury walked forward, stepping to the side when he pulled the chair out, leaving it empty. Weiss stopped in her path, glancing at him with an almost suspicious look before she stepped forward to take the seat he had offered her. The one facing away from the window, since she had been going for the other one he would need to observe Leon during their meal.

He knew quite a bit about the man already, he simply needed to pick up on specifics that he couldn't learn from others. They were never as observative as someone in his field.

Mercury pushed her chair closer to the table before he walked around it to sit down in the opposite chair. Weiss was looking at the cursive letters on the menu before glancing up to him. "I didn't know you knew what the word chivalry actually meant."

He grinned back at her, remembering the blush on her face once again from when he had kissed the back of her hand not too long ago. "I usually interpret it the way a King Taijitu would."

"I thought that was the case. I must have just been seeing things a second ago."

Mercury let out a small chuckle as she smiled at him. A second later he had his hand over his heart, dramatically leaning back in his chair as if he been hit so hard that he had almost toppled over. "Madam, you wound me," he said, continuing with the 'chivalry' theme.

Weiss laughed at the scene he had created just as the waitress walked up to their table. "Hello. My name is Leliana. What can I get for the two of you to drink?"

Her gaze had dropped back down to the menu again, flicking it open and he watched as her eyes widened slightly at the price for drinks. Mercury didn't even glance at his own, he hadn't really given the restaurant much thought himself, he had just wanted a good view point into the one across from it so he could see his target. So the prices weren't really concerning to him, like they must have been to Weiss despite her upbringing as she peeked at him from over the menu. "Why did you choose this place?"

He brushed the drinks list away from the top of his own menu. Alcohol wasn't something he was very fond of. Now Weiss on the other hand... "Get whatever you want, I did sort-of drag you here. The least I can do is let you order your own food."

Weiss narrowed her eyes at his comment, but giggled a moment later. She seemed more relaxed than she had been when they first came into this restaurant and he realized a second later that she must have thought he had picked such a fancy place to impress her at first. But upon seeing him not even attempt to order champagne - or anything mind-crippling - she must have changed her mind about that particular thought.

She turned to the waitress after scanning the second-story room. "Can we have two champagne flutes and a pitcher of water, please?"

Leliana looked a little confused by the request but nodded her head a second later, "Sure thing. I'll be back to get your order shortly." With that their waitress left, probably to see to other guests first.

He raised a brow at her. "Just water?"

"It's what I wanted." Weiss told him in the same tone of voice he had spoken in previously. He chuckled, glancing around her to see Leon was just as punctual as everyone said he was. That was going to be convenient for tomorrow, nothing was more annoying than having a target that wasn't punctual for their own death.

A minute had passed before she set her menu down, drawing his gaze back to her instead of memorizing Leon's mannerisms and the beginning of any patterns. He seemed like the sort of person to do the same things at the exact same second every day. In other words: boring.

"Hey, Mercury?"

"Yeah?" He had already figured out what he was ordering before the waitress even left, he had just left his menu open with the pretense that he might still be debating on it.

"Thank you for taking me here." _Hm?_

He barely stopped himself from cocking his head to the side. Wasn't that something you were suppose to say at the end of the date? Why was she saying it now? What was she-

"Here you go." Leliana placed the champagne flutes on the table, pouring ice cold water into them before placing the picture on the table, after placing a small mat beneath it so it didn't ruin the wood. "Have you decided on what you're getting?" she asked, with a pen and tablet in hand.

The woman nearly dropped the pen when Weiss spoke, holding herself as he envisioned she would at home. With her listing off her order, an item to leave out of it, how she wanted the food cooked; all as if she were in a castle rather than a public restaurant. Just... in a more snobbish manner than even he had thought she was capable of.

Leliana picked up her pen quickly, the pleasant look on her face a bit strained now. She probably thought she was dealing with a pair of rich kids who had gotten everything they ever wanted. Which was only true for one of them - something they would notice if they looked at the book. He had never been hand fed anything in his life. "And what would you like?" she turned to him, obviously hoping he wouldn't order the same way Weiss just had.

He was actually a bit stunned by the sudden change in her behavior as well and just told the lady the name of the item, gaze set on Weiss rather than his target over her shoulder. As the waitress turned and left, looking a a bit relieved with the way things ended; Weiss tipped her head to a table on her right. He glanced over to see the two people at that table with actual champagne in their glasses, clinking them together and drinking before digging into their food. He studied them for another minute or so before understanding what Weiss was getting at when he let his eyes drift over the rest of the restaurant. Everyone was more or less doing the same thing, indulging in pleasant conversation as they ate in the fancy restaurant. It wasn't a very expensive restaurant, but it gave off the air of one, so in turn the people were being more sophisticated.

When his gaze settled back on her she had wrapped her fingers around the champagne flute, gripping it loosely and not in a sophisticated manner at all. She had it tipped up slightly - in such a manner that the water looked like it would spill out if she tipped it any further, - clearly waiting for him to join her.

It barely took a second for him to grab his own glass and raise it up to meet hers. When the glasses _clinked_ there was enough force to cause the top layer of water to spill onto the table. Weiss didn't pay it any mind as she took an _extremely_ delicate sip from her glass, lips grazing the edge.

It set the bar for the rest of the afternoon and he aimed to break it then raise it quite a couple times. When the waitress came back he had assumed the same air about him as Weiss had, much to Leliana's distaste. The forced smile on her face was slowly dissolving into a scowl whenever she came around to their table, usually to refill their glasses and throwing a dirty look at Weiss in particular. She probably thought that Weiss had influenced Mercury into acting like this, and... he just found that hilarious.

Unlike everyone else inside the restaurant they didn't use inside voices, not even when they picked up on another groups conversation and began to mimic it, earning dirty looks from the other customers as well. Weiss still complied with chewing with her mouth closed, so he didn't break that unspoken rule of society, but he went ahead and broke most of the others. Like using the table as a - much taller - stool for his feet. Weiss didn't indulge in that considering her combat skirt - though, one could wish she would - but she continued with an extreme over the top stereotype of people that considered themselves nobles.

Until the waitress came over that is and slammed a hand down onto their table, which held the receipt for their meal, that quickly became nearly illegible as it soaked in the water. "You need to leave. You're disturbing the other customers," the words came out hissed, in a lower voice than her action had indicated she would use. But it's not like no one was staring at them at this point, they had clearly been waiting for this to happen.

"Whatever." Mercury placed some loose change down to pay for their meal before getting up and extending a hand toward Weiss. She got up a bit more slowly than he did, fingers digging into her pocket for a second before she stepped towards him, but he didn't miss the way she had slipped a few extra lein into the waitress' hands before Leliana could really start cleaning up their table to supposedly get some more respectful customers in their place.

The woman's head snapped around, staring at them as Weiss took his hand, allowing him to lead her out of the restaurant, navigating his way around the tables and chairs to the stairs to escape out the front door a few seconds later. Weiss was giggling at his side until a few steps away from the restaurant; she had stopped dead in her tracks and when Mercury glanced at her he could see a pink tinge on her cheeks, along with a pair of wide eyes. Like she couldn't believe what she had just done in there; but more so than anything... she looked worried.

Since this was closer to a traditional date - he wasn't going to say it had been normal - he figured he would have to do something to get her mind off whatever it was that was suddenly bothering her. He was inclined to do _something_ rather than trying more cheesy lines, though. Something with an impact... that she couldn't forget. It didn't take very long for him to come to a simple conclusion.

Mercury bent down, pressing his lips to her cheek and watching it turn as red as an apple in a flash, her gaze darting to him as a surprised 'squeak' passed her lips. He bit his tongue against saying something along the lines of, 'ready for that study session' and instead tightened his hold on her hand for an instant before he began walking down the street and back towards Beacon.


	8. Vermilion Veil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do like to know what you guys think of the story, so please leave a comment :)

"Please?" Ruby's voice came out in a childish whine as she sat in front of Blake, hands clasped in front of her as she begged the older girl for that book of hers once more. Yang muffled her laughter by holding a fist up to her mouth, ready to bite down on it rather than cause Ruby to turn around and raise a curious brow at her, wondering why her sister was laughing over the scene enfolding in front of her.

Blake glared at Yang from the over the top of her head, those ears she hid twitched in the confines of their bow before her gaze darted back to Ruby.

"Come on, I want to make a garden with you," Ruby said, obviously with full on puppy dog eyes from Blake's panic-stricken face. "You said you would think about it."

This time when Blake glanced at Yang without a word to Ruby her own eyes were filled with her own plea. Much more subtle and silent than Ruby's but still clear to her: Blake wanted out of this conversation now, something to distract Ruby so this conversation never happened again, but Yang bit down on her tongue, giggling softly to herself.

"Blake?" Ruby gave a dramatic sniff and Blake threw her hands up into the air, very much as if she had just been thrown into a pit of wolves. Or if Zwei had somehow appeared in her bed and woken her up by licking her cheek in the middle of the night. Yang had to fight to keep her laughter inside, remembering that scene in perfect detail since she had been the one to place Zwei there in the first place.

"Fine! But we're not doing it with my book. It's for... advanced techniques." A laugh escaped Yang's lips and Blake shot her a look, definitely not wanting Ruby to catch on that _her_ book had nothing to do with agriculture. Of course, she didn't _really_ have to worry about that. All the innuendo in the world, and sexual comments went right over her little sister's head, probably because she was too young to realize what they were talking about. Even though their father had set them both down and had the infamous 'talk' Ruby still didn't even understand the light plug and outlet joke. So there was no way this more 'advanced' - Yang giggled at her own joke here - innuendo would register in her mind.

"Yay!" Ruby jumped up from the carpet, landing on her feet as she questioned Blake, "But what book should we use until I'm ready for the advanced stuff?"

Blake's hand twitched, as if she wanted to slap herself in the face for giving in to this idea. "Just find something in the library for beginners with a flower you like and we'll _attempt_ to keep it alive."

"Okay!" There was a moment of silence before Ruby shouted to the broken moon, "We're going to make a garden!" Yang burst out laughing as her sister pranced around the room, in some state of bliss as Blake curled up into the fetal position on her bed. It was then that the door opened and Ruby spun around to see who it was. "Weiss!" she shouted, jumping for the door.

"No." Weiss slammed the door closed a lot faster than she had opened it, Ruby almost face-planting into the wood.

Her hands had hit the door first, so her little sister managed to keep her nose intact, but then Ruby slid down the side all dramatically, asking Weiss to open the door, telling her through the barrier that Blake had agreed to make a garden with her and that she was going to make it a team effort. When the door finally opened again Yang knew Weiss wasn't too keen on that idea as she frowned down at Ruby.

"I want nothing to do with your 'garden.'"

The way she said it made Yang nearly burst into another round of laughter, but instead she bottled it up for another time, trying to fight back a grin as she asked Weiss, "Why weren't you with us at the library today?"

"Yeah," Ruby quickly joined in, walking over to sit on Yang's bed. "You messaged me about something coming up so you couldn't go, but you never mentioned what it was."

"It must've been pretty important for you to only be getting back now." Blake added, finally sitting up. Apparently her teammate liked this topic more than the last one. "Ruby mentioned you wouldn't be coming back until later since whatever it was would keep you busy all day." Blake paused for a moment. "Did it have something to do with the SDC?"

Yang glanced back to Weiss, who had remained silent as they threw question after question at her. It was rare that Weiss would do something like this after all, and it would make sense if her father or someone else in the company had contacted her so that she had to be away for the entire day. It was a good guess, but not the most important thing... Yang could distinctly remember that a certain blue-haired foreign student had been more bummed out than any of her teammates about Weiss' absence.

She leaned forward with a grin. "Neptune was really disappointed that you couldn't be there." Those words got an immediate reaction out of Weiss.

As she was now frowning, gaze directed at Yang as she nibbled on her bottom lip. She had to question just what it had been that had come up, since so far it seemed as if Weiss hadn't wanted to go. Not when Yang knew she had been looking forward to seeing Neptune again after they reconciled at the dance. "Did he still study with the rest of you?"

"Yup," Ruby said with a smile. "All of team SSSN joined us, actually."

"I wouldn't call what we were doing studying when they were all there. Not after the first hour, anyway." With a nervous glance around Blake set her feet on the floor; always on high alert for the dog.

"So? What was so important that you had to crush Neptune's heart with an early snow?" Yang asked.

Weiss sent her a slated glare as she laughed at her own joke. "I was on a date." Her laughter stopped abruptly, her eyes widening as she stared at Weiss, pretty sure she had heard her wrong. But from the silence that had descended over the room that couldn't be right. Everyone was just as shocked as her.

"With who?" Blake was the one to break the silence, her attention centered on Weiss. It just seemed... weird. That after teasing Weiss about Neptune she would bring up such a reason for not being there. Weiss _did_ like Neptune, didn't she? That was the vibe Yang had gotten from her, so...

"Was it his evil twin?" Ruby questioned.

"No." Weiss crossed her arms. "I was on a date with Mercury."

"Mercury?" She had heard the name before, heard it fall from Weiss' lips once before actually, but she was still having difficulty believing what she was hearing.

Weiss gave a nod of her head. "He came up and asked me while I was on my way to the library."

 _Oh_ , now she remembered him. The guy Weiss had gone to the dance with when Neptune hadn't gone with her. That had also been a shock, in more ways than one.

Heck, it was shocking enough to see Neptune walk in with most of team SSSN, going over to chat with Sun and Blake instead of Weiss. Yang knew that Weiss had intended to ask him out, and she's not sure why he said no at the time - somehow Jaune seemed to be in the know, but at the time she was watching her friends and just being very confused about it all.

Weiss had entered the ballroom with Mercury, arm in arm, going directly to the dance floor. Though, Weiss had clearly been staring at Neptune as she danced and seemed to light up when Neptune finally walked over. The two of them had gone and sit down to talk, as far as Yang knew. She had paid a bit more attention to Mercury after that, curious about the guy Weiss had gone with.

For awhile she hadn't been able to find him, and then he was coming down from the second floor with another girl: dark skin, green hair, red eyes. The two of them had danced for a little while on the floor, but then another girl in what had to be the most elegant dress at the party had cut in, much to the green-haired one's relief. Yang wasn't even sure why he had been dancing with someone who clearly hadn't wanted to dance with him, they were further apart than most other people - couples - that had been dancing. She did get her answer to that - sort-of - a few days later, as she had noticed him walking with both girls on school grounds. So they were clearly teammates, just not as close at her own team; or as comfortable, mostly that is.

He seemed almost too comfortable with the other one. The one with the golden eyes, that had a hand thrown over his shoulder, curling in towards the nape of his neck; the other one lying on his arm in an intimate fashion. The body language in general had screamed that word at her: intimate. Because unlike Emerald, the CMNE team leader Cinder had been closer to him, so close their chests nearly touched. It was too familiar, at least that's how it had seemed to her. As if there was something going on between the two of them - or had been at the very least. If Mercury was asking Weiss out she would think - hope - that he wasn't two-timing her. She didn't know him well enough or the relationship he had with Cinder to make a definite conclusion. It was just her own observation that had led her to believe that there was something between the two of them. Something Weiss wouldn't have noticed or caught on to since she had been focused on Neptune the rest of the night.

Her feelings on the matter hadn't changed much when she had noticed them all walking together that day and realized they were on the same team. The only thing she was sure of is that they had all danced together more-or-less because they were teammates and only one had gotten a date. She wasn't sure about the fourth member as the other girl... what had been her name? Niara? Hadn't been present for the dance, but she guessed Mercury would have danced with her as well at the dance if she had been there. So... perhaps she had been thinking too much about it at the time because Weiss had been involved - still was - and there actually wasn't anything going on between Mercury and Cinder. That's what she wanted to believe, but even then she had gotten a weird feeling when she saw the three of them walking together. Cinder in the middle, with Emerald and Mercury on either side of her, as if she were a queen or something. It was just... really weird.

That's the only way Yang could explain it to herself.

Weiss paused in her explanation for a few seconds, drawing Yang's attention back to the topic as she seemed to lose a bit of her confident composure. "I felt bad about ditching him at the dance, so I went out with him today, and then afterward we studied for a bit..."

Upon seeing the light shade of pink on her cheeks Yang sought to get rid of her worries, becoming more curious of what happened to make Weiss trail off like that. "What are you getting so flustered for?" she asked, the tone of her voice giving no suggestion of where her thoughts had been a moment ago.

"Hm?" Weiss looked as if she had just noticed the burn in her cheeks. "I am _not_ flustered," she snapped a second later, much to Yang's amusement.

"Then how come your cheeks are red?" Ruby asked, a mischievous grin on her face.

Weiss frowned, not that it helped suppress the color on her cheeks. "He kissed me." Another round of silence filled the air before Weiss quickly added, "On the cheek." when Ruby stared at her with ever-growing wide eyes.

"That's it?" Blake asked after an extended period of silence.

Weiss blinked in surprise at the casual tone of her comrade, opened her mouth as if to say something, but then resorted to throwing a glare at Blake instead. Ruby was laughing to her left, Blake smiling slightly at Weiss' reaction to them teasing her.

It seemed there was more to it than that, but she didn't want to ask Weiss with Ruby around. "When did you meet Mercury anyway? This is only the second time you've mentioned him."

Weiss regained her composure pretty quickly at this more reasonable question. "Outside the CCT." She paused to glare at Ruby. "Where _she_ ditched me."

"I didn't mean to!" Ruby quickly began to defend herself. "I saw Penny there, and she was acting weird. You saw it yourself, so I went to talk with her-"

"So you ditched me," Weiss repeated, giving a smile of her own.

Yang burst into another round of laughter as Ruby tried to explain why she had left Weiss outside the CCT by herself, not seeming to realize that Weiss was only joking.

_~ M ~_

The aroma of food filled the alleyway, he could almost see it curling around the back door, slipping through the cracks to entice some homeless person to go and dig through the dumpster closest to it, believing they might find something tasty inside. In reality they would get sick within an hour, end up doubled in pain and coughing their lungs up for a couple more hours before they foamed at the mouth and rolled over dead.

Mercury may - or may not - have put some chemical in there to cause such an effect. Simply to see it come up in the paper and have some health inspector link the incidents with the restaurant so it would get shut down; just a little prank, really.

He sighed softly, tapping at his scroll to see the time for him to fulfill his job for Cinder would be here soon. The scent coming from that was place was nearly overwhelming, filling the air with a bunch of different spices and herbs due to all the dishes being created within. It was practically suffocating, and it only made him wish he had something that would diminish its effect. Like the perfume Weiss wore for instance.

That had been much more subtle, becoming more powerful the closer he had managed to get to the nape of her neck where she must have spritzed it on in the morning, but not overly so. The only way that could happen is if he was able to bury his face in the crook of her neck, which he wasn't going to attempt anytime soon. It had been enough last night just to sit next to her during their study session, twisting his head to look over her shoulder and down at what she was looking at when she let out an annoyed huff for the fourth time without flipping the page. An obvious shiver had run through her body when he breathed directly onto her shoulder, while giving her the solution to the problem of course. Textbooks didn't cover nearly all the scenarios that could happen on the field, but some of them were just really out there at times. That had been one of them.

He had dragged the tips of his fingers over her hands a couple of times when he reached for something close to her own, never apologizing for it or doing some young awkward teenage thing. It was hardly an accident, he knew he could shift just a bit so it wouldn't happen, but he always made sure it did. He wasn't sure how confident Neptune was, but he certainly seemed like the typical teenage boy, unsure of himself and all that bullshit. Mercury didn't have time to be unsure of something, he needed to be certain it would work. Like now.

One of the employees was opening the back door, hefting two heaving trash bags out towards the dumpster. His back was to Mercury, as he could see from the shard of glass he had propped up against the opposite wall. Mercury had positioned himself between a structural column with a gutter and a pile of cardboard, so that no one would see him if they came out the back door, or if they peered down the alleyway.

He didn't waste any time though, keeping his gaze on that shard of glass he jumped up, swerving around the column with a couple light touches of his hands, landing softly on his feet in front of the door as he heard the employee curse as they tried to fit the bags into the dumpster. No one in the kitchen was looking towards the open door, as he had been able to see for himself - or rather just a closed door for the past hour. Mercury quick-stepped his way into the kitchen, slipping into the open freezer and pressing the heel of his boot against the door to get it to slowly close the rest of the way.

Leon was already inside, doing some annual inspection of something inside - Mercury hadn't cared for that detail - being able to pick out the one he wanted himself, probably because of his status and being a regular at this place. He couldn't really imagine any other reason why this would be allowed, and it really was a health regulation of some sort. It had to be, that's why he sabotaged trash in the first place. Karma at its finest, and - admittedly - its most ridiculous.

He took a few slow steps towards his target, so the soft click of his boots was masked by the sounds of the freezer working to keep its contents cold. Leon turned his head, looking at something on the shelf for a second, before evidently noticing something odd in his peripheal vision.

Leon turned much more quickly, facing Mercury now as he stood barely a foot away. "What are you doing in here?" Mercury didn't reply, while sometimes he would play with his 'food' today was all buisness. Leon frowned at his silence. "Answer me," his voice seemed rather loud in the freezer, but it was soundproof, so Mercury wasn't worried about anybody hearing the guy supposedly talking to himself. Leon stared him down for a couple more seconds, apparently not realizing the danger he was in. For some reason, most people didn't. Was he just not intimidating enough? Appearing out of nowhere, not saying a word, just looking at you... didn't anyone find that remotely creepy? "Hey... aren't you one of those kids from the other day? Causing a scene in-"

Mercury effectively cut him off by jamming his left vambrace between Leon's collar bone and his jaw, making sure to dig in and add preasure against the man's windpipe so that he might shut up.

A low sound rumbled in the man's throat, as he tried to continue speaking with such an obstacle obscuring his vocal path. He pressed down just a bit harder, listening to that last breath of air escape the man's lungs. That's when his eyes began to widen, finally realizing that he was going to die.

This was usually how it went, there was no fear in their eyes until those final seconds. Mercury shifted his arm as the man's fingers tried to grip his arm and force him to loosen his own grip. He was failing, of course, not even realizing that you were dealing with an assasin until you were on death's door was a stupid time to start fighting. He was completely unprepared for an attack, chest heaving for a precious drop of oxygen, all his energy was being used up by his body having a panic attack from the lack of it. So it was no surprise when his fingers fell away seconds after his eyes began to dilate, his body slowing in movement, beginning to shut down. It wasn't a slow process, only taking two minutes for him to get to this point. Most people could last three, and give more of a fight, at least they could in his experience.

This was boring. Mercury relaxed his grip, watching as Leon suddenly gasped in air, throat bulging out as he took a heavy gulp. In the next second he had slid the edge of his vambrace through the layer of skin, pushing down as he got to the curve of the neck, tearing through the left carotid artery.

" _Glrguhun_." Leon's hands attempted to fly up toward his neck, but fell short, hovering above the skin a few inches lower than where the mortal wound had been inflicted. Then his hands fell down to dangle at his sides as his body fell to the floor, sprawling in a heap on the cold metal, contaminating the sanitized floor.

Mercury pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket, running it along his metal vambrace first before dabbing at a few spots on his face were some blood had landed. With his task complete his gaze drifted up to the vent on the ceiling, getting out was going to be a bit more tricky. It always was, but after seeing the blood spray across clean metal with a frosted over glaze his own blood was running hot. He wanted a challenge, even if it barely qualified as such.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope, the team name was not a typo, it's their actual team name this time. Because I like irony.


	9. Strawberry Icing

_Leon Kutawa found dead in Rain-forest Buffet's Freezer_

_On XX/XX Leon was found dead some time after he usually went into the restaurant. It is a well-known fact that the Rain-forest Buffet was his favorite place to have lunch and he would regularly hold small meetings in there. After he didn't come back to the table though some of the staff went to find him only to discover his body in the freezer. Leon's throat was torn open, and the only way in and out of the freezer that was open at the time of discovery was a vent within the freezer. Where the police believe the killer entered and exited as no staff witnessed anything out of the ordinary before the incident._

_The police are currently looking into his death to determine who may have been the cause of it. There are no current leads so if you were in the area at the time and wish to leave a tip please call the Vale Police Department._

The article was short and to the point, a small description of Leon and his involvement with Vale defenses followed after the announcement of his death. It clearly wasn't random, at least Blake didn't believe it was. Some would, denying there had been a target painted on the back of someone involved with keeping the city safe. Because if that was the case then someone was clearly interested in disrupting the peace.

A rather unsettling peace. Beyond this death there had only been petty crimes reported in the paper, and there was fewer than normal. Its like crime was becoming non existent; the only ones acting were individuals. Blake had kept track, trying to find anything that could be connected to the White Fang. This death was perhaps the most evidence of the terrorists she had come across after the stunt they had pulled with the train.

The paper itself had stated that Leon's throat had been torn open, as if attacked by an animal. Unfortunately it didn't go into detail of what the scar looked like or what might have caused it. If it was a weapon or a pair of claws. The difference could be crucial, it could be what linked the murder to the White Fang or didn't. The paper did mention that the culprit seemed to have entered and exited from a vent of all things, which insinuated that they knew Leon would be in the freezer-

She had a problem with this bit, for multiple reasons. The first being why Leon was even in the freezer; it was mentioned, but the reason was never given, nothing was explained. That and the White Fang liked to claim responsibility for their acts against humanity. They would have had no problem with going in and just killing everyone at the meeting, terrorizing the people while killing their target. It was weird that they would keep quiet about it if they were the ones responsible. Plus they hadn't made any obvious moves since Roman Torchwick had been captured, they were being silent.

But she couldn't think of anyone else that would want a person from Vale security killed, especially when it came to people operating on their own. Blake supposed it could be someone had just hired an assassin. Surely there were quieter ways to kill someone than leaving their corpse in a busy - open - restaurant, though. Either way, whoever was responsible had to be pretty confident that no one would just walk in that freezer during the crime itself. It was extremely risky and not the sort of condition an assassin would set out for. If it had just been an employee of the restaurant the media wouldn't have given it such coverage, and perhaps she could more easily believe that it was a rookie mistake of killing a target because of another person's grudge. It all just felt very planned, executed to the payee's desires.

Blake was pretty sure her teammates would tell her that she was thinking about it too much. None of them were as engrossed in the news as she was. Not with Torchwick behind bars anyways. They were all pleased with themselves, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

So her face was buried in the newspaper as she walked behind her team, following them step-by-step through the courtyard. She was so focused on it - so engrossed in her own thoughts - that she didn't notice Yang had stopped in front of her until she kept walking and collided with the other girl's back.

Her ears unconsciously flattened against the top of her head when Yang looked back over her shoulder at her, laughing at her for doing such a thing. Especially since it wasn't the first time Blake had done this before.

"Up in space again?" Yang asked through her laughter.

Blake frowned, giving a shake of her head before slipping her face back behind the newspaper. Her thoughts were too scattered to go back to focusing on the headline though.

"Hey Emerald," Ruby managed to get out after giggling at _her_ \- what else could she be giggling about? "Cinder, Mercury-" There was an unmistakable snort of laughter and Blake glanced over the top of her newspaper to see team Carmine sitting on some benches in the courtyard.

Cinder was watching Ruby with a smile that Blake could only describe as pleasant, her legs crossed and hands settled in her lap. Emerald's was much brighter as she returned the greeting, "Hello Ruby." Mercury didn't even glance up from the comic book he was reading, just raised his hand to make some gesture similar to a wave before stopping halfway through to go back to the comic. There was another girl with them as well this time, but Blake didn't recognize her.

"I just wanted to say hello to your teammate. We haven't met before. Niara, right?" Ruby asked, glancing to the new girl.

That's right. Sun had mentioned that the other team member of CMNE had been spending time with her family in Mistral after her last team was killed in a mission that had left the girl - Niara - physically and emotionally damaged.

The same girl that had been staring at Yang with a look of distaste before giving Ruby any signs of acknowledgement. Which was just a nod of the head and a tight lipped smile, her black pigtails bouncing with the movement.

Ruby cocked her head to the side, as if puzzled by the way the girl acted. Blake couldn't say she was too surprised after hearing what had allegedly happened during that mission before Niara replaced Cinder's partner after having a change of heart and deciding to do something else other than being a huntsmen.

"Oh, she can't speak. Her vocal chords were damaged." Emerald said, drawing Ruby's attention back to her. Emerald really was the only one from the team that Blake had interacted with before, like most of her team. Besides Weiss of course.

Blake glanced towards Mercury as Ruby apologized to Niara, making a bunch of movements with her arms as she did so; because it added to the sincerity of her words... somehow. Sometimes it was a little hard to take her team leader seriously. Mercury still wasn't contributing anything to the conversation, and he wasn't looking towards Weiss even though she was standing beside Ruby. His eyes weren't on the comic though like she first thought, they were fixed on Cinder.

Her gaze flickered to the leader of CMNE whose fingers were tapping away lightly at her thigh, looking in the direction of Emerald and Niara. She didn't seem to be focused on the conversation though, and a second later she tipped her head to the side, gaze flickering to Mercury.

Their eyes must have connected as Blake could see Mercury slide a bit further down on the bench from her peripheral vision. Her own gaze was still focused on Cinder, mostly because the woman was now looking back at her, but she didn't seem bothered at her noticing this little interaction.

Cinder was smiling when the sound of the bullet went off.

Blake's gaze shot towards Niara, who had jerked her head to the side so the bullet didn't hit her left eye. The small girl jumped up in the next second, gaze focused on Mercury - who had finally dropped the comic - as she reached back for her weapon, leaping towards him with the blades on the chain roaring.

Mercury flipped back, sparks flying as he momentarily caught the chainsaw with his boots, flinging it outward before touching down on the ground. Niara landed in front of him a moment later and they were soon exchanging blows: her chainsaw arcing through the air, his vambraces blocking each attack; it was extremely one-sided.

"Anything exciting in the paper?" The question caught her even further off-guard.

Blake turned her head slowly to look at Cinder, glancing down at the newspaper she still held in her hands. Her teammates weren't exactly interested in it - they were all watching Niara and Mercury still, as if Cinder hadn't spoken at all - but maybe Cinder was? It would be nice if someone else would actually see the inconsistency she did.

"Yes, actually." Blake turned the paper around, pointing a finger at the headline. "A death of a semi-important person to Vale Security. Leon wasn't very high up, but I know he was going to try to be elected for a higher position so he could make more of a difference in the next election."

"Hm." Cinder seemed to study the article, gaze sweeping over the words on the paper. "That does seem like quite the tragedy." Blake would argue that usually a tragedy was defined as something unexpected, not an obviously pre-planned murder; but Cinder cleared up her own usage of the word a moment later. "You supported him in the community, didn't you?" With a nod of her head Cinder continued, "It's a tragedy he died before the election. The writer could have been more sympathetic as well. That headline really goes in for the shock value, not very considerate for the deceased."

Blake gave a nod of her head in agreement. "The media doesn't always care about that sort of thing." But she was glad that Cinder showed such concern for something that had nothing to do with Mistral. It was the mark of a true huntress, considering it shouldn't matter where you were trained. You should help anybody that needs it, defend them.

"They should be ashamed for treating such an important person that way. It certainly wouldn't have been much trouble to simplify the headline. The fact that he died in a freezer isn't really needed."

"It's disrespectful." Blake turned the newspaper around to glance over the wording again, wondering what else the media could have changed as to not come off so heartless.

"Uh..." With the lapse in conversation Blake's attention was re-diverted to Yang, who - along with Ruby and Weiss - were still watching as Mercury and Niara fought, but really... looking at it now Blake could tell that it was just Niara fighting. Mercury was either blocking or dodging the blows entirely.

"It's fine," Cinder said, and this time she was clearly talking to all of them.

Yang turned to her quickly enough. "He shot a bullet at her _head_."

Cinder still didn't look the least bit worried or concerned with such a detail - and technically he had shot the bullet at her eye, something that made Blake's skin prickle in the smallest degree - she was still smiling. "Niara's been antsy since she got here. She arrived the day of the Grimm attack so it's to be expected."

"What is?" Ruby asked, clearly trying to see this wisdom that Cinder seemed to posses on the matter.

"She suffered through trauma before coming here, and then she arrives the same day Grimm break through. Niara didn't come out of her room for the past few days following and she hasn't participated in any battle since what happened to her team. It's completely understandable that she needs to let out all that emotion she kept bottled up. I imagine she's been angry and frustrated with herself considering she's the only one that survived a Grimm ambush. This is just a nice chance to unwind and get it out of her system."

"Oh." Ruby sounded like she understood from the small exclamation, but Blake wasn't too sure.

She tuned out once more as Weiss mentioned to Ruby that they were going to be late soon. Her gaze was on Niara, but briefly slipped to Mercury, noting the shape of the vambraces that he was using to block Niara's attacks. The edges of them beneath his arm were worn, the metal slightly jagged. He should have someone look at them so he didn't end up cutting himself on them.

_~ M ~_

He flipped to the next page of the comic when Emerald mentioned his name; not that he really needed to pretend to be reading the thing, it was clear that he was ignoring their conversation. It was just out of habit now, and he wasn't really dedicated to annoying Emerald right now. Mostly because he didn't want to be drawn into the conversation between her and Cinder.

Emerald was already annoyed that she had to be friendly with team RWBY to keep tabs on them and had tried to shift the responsibility on him. 'Because he was already interacting with Weiss for his own selfish reasons, so why couldn't he do it?' The simple answer? He didn't want to fucking deal with Weiss' friends. Some more than others. Like Ruby and Neptune. The first because she was an annoying brat. The second because of obvious reasons: like flirting with Weiss for instance.

It was really something he didn't want to deal with for much longer. That's why he had been trying to catch her attention, so that she would stop paying attention to Neptune in the first place. He was already sick of trying to compete for it, especially since his adversary was an idiot.

At the moment he didn't think he was doing poorly with that. Granted, he had had to guilt-trip her into that date with him, but the study session afterwards had gone well enough and had been much more predictable. He had made his interest in her clear since the 'first day they met,' even if she didn't exactly catch on until after the dance.

Now he just needed to secure it, after that he wouldn't have to worry about anything. _Shouldn't_ perhaps would be a better way to look at it. In the case that something popped up that screwed with his plans. Which was why he would take care of getting rid of some of that dust and money the Schnee company held before he focused on taking what Weiss herself had to offer.

He was familiar with Atlas and their deranged outlooks of aristocracy: believing that high society was royalty, marriage was just another business practice, that _virtue_ was worth lien. It would be amusing to shatter any previous or future plans for Weiss; she didn't seem to be the type that would go through with them, so he doubted it would be difficult to accomplish.

Mercury was pretty sure he had found an opening into the company's system; one they wouldn't be able to track or have any record of. Weiss had sensitive information transferred to her scroll back at the CCT. If she still had it he should get a look at it, even if just to get a layout of what he would be dealing with. Not just for him, but for Cinder to. If there was a way to cripple their enemies and their supplies in any way she would want to know about it.

There was the problem that Weiss could have gotten rid of it by now, but considering what he had seen back at the CCT he was going to have to take a chance and see for himself. She did carry her scroll on her all the time, probably had it networked to keep out hackers - something the company itself should have done before ever handing her a scroll just so no one else could track her location. It was entirely possible she hadn't erased it because she didn't think anyone could access the information from her scroll if she kept it close and put too much trust in the security put into the scroll. But there would be no security to get through if one could get their hands on the scroll itself.

Which could be as easy as getting close to Weiss and simply accessing it when she was unconscious. Or in more simple terms, sleeping. He didn't know if she woke up easily or not, but if he could catch her when she was already exhausted he should have ample time to look through it and get what he wanted. He might also learn what she had wanted the information for in the first place, just what she had been doing with it. That 'school project' excuse she had told the secretary was clearly bullshit. The woman herself had seen through it and still given Weiss what she wanted.

It was too bad none of her friends realized how much of a flaw she was in the company's otherwise secure system. But, they probably never thought of using her as a connection to an endless supply of money and dust. Not that he would be taking all of it, or particularly large chunks. That would be too obvious. Mistakes happen in a big company, and if he played his cards right that's what he could make it look like.

Mercury flipped the comic book closed, placing it on the desk for now as he got up and started heading for the door. From the corner of his eye he could see Cinder frowning at Neo - who wasn't looking entirely happy herself.

"If you can't keep your animosity to yourself then you have no buisness being here. Whatever it is that caused that scene in the courtyard today better be bottled up until the moment you break Roman out of his cell. I will not tolerate any behavior that could jeapordize the mission-"

He waited until Roman's name had faded from the air until opening the door and walking out into the hall, closing it swiftly. There was a click an instant later as the lock was turned back into place. Emerald clearly being cautious considering the topics of conversation that went on inside Cinder's room.

Mercury made his way down the hall, past his own room and down the stairs to step outside into the cool night air. It was only a short walk to the dormitories of Beacon. He had figured out which one was team RWBY's earlier and while the light in the dorm was on he could only hear one voice inside. A clear indication that some of them were missing was that he could only make out three shadows moving around in the room. One undoubtedly Ruby, while another wasn't even remotely human. Must be the dog, and either her sister or Blake from the way the other shadow was running from the dog.

He mentally ticked off the possibilities of where Weiss might be at this hour before heading off. First he checked the cafe, thinking she might have gone for coffee to have while studying. The next logical place would be the library, considering the comotion being made in the dormitory.

It was hard to miss the white hair disappearing around a bookshelf. He walked towards where he had seen her, not about to call out; there were still people studying in the library or working on an assignment. Exams and such continued even with the Vytal Festival taking place here. When he turned the corner he almost cursed aloud to see Yang standing next to Weiss, glancing over a paper slip.

He would have rather it have been Blake, the faunus disguising herself as a human was surpisingly easy to get along with. Mostly due to the fact that she hardly spoke and kept to herself. Yang on the other hand-

"Oh, hey Merc." Yang turned around the moment she noticed him, with a big grin on her face. She was calling him by the same nickname Emerald had given him, a shortened - bastardized - version of his name. Okay, he didn't really care about that. But he had been hoping Weiss was alone. Most of her teammates seemed like a parasite latched onto her at all times.

As things were Weiss turned to him shortly after Yang. "Hello Mercury."

"Hey." With Yang having alerted her to his prescence he didn't have the chance to sneak up on her and see just how she would respond this time. It left him just slightly dissapointed, and perhaps a tad irritated. "Can I talk to you?" His gaze slipped to Yang before landing back on Weiss. "Alone?"

She blinked before nodding her head. "Sure. I just have to put a few things away."

He gave a nod of his own head as he watched her walk over to the tables. His gaze was drawn to Yang when she spoke, not as loud as she usually did. Probably so as not to disturb anyone; he hadn't thought she had a considerate bone in her body. "Do you have a girlfriend back in Haven?"

For a moment his brain seemed to shut down as he just stared at her, and then it spun back into gear. "I had a girlfriend in Haven, but we broke up months ago. Why? Interested in the position?" He didn't bother to hide the malice in his voice. "You would be more likely to get it if you buttoned up your shirt."

Yang's eyes briefly flashed red as she took a step toward him, lowering her voice even further. "I wasn't asking for me you smartass shit. I would never do that to Weiss. She actually likes you for some bizarre reason. And if you ever think you can have another girl on the side I'll bust you up."

As if he had ever thought of that. It would throw his plans off completely if he were to do something so stupid. He wasn't going to take that chance, but... was that really the conclusion Yang came to? That he was the type to switch girls out? Not that he never did... but this was different from those affairs.

On the other hand hearing Yang actually say that Weiss was reciprocating his interest was good news. Very good news, since without it he wouldn't be able to get anywhere. Mercury left the venom out of his voice this time. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Yang frowned, as if she had been expecting him to tell her to mind her own buisness. A few seconds passed before she said a simple, "Good."

He didn't comment further as he could see Weiss walking over now, a small bag in hand that must contain her homework or whatever it was she had been studying or researching here.

"Done. Where did you want to talk?"

He hadn't acually thought of a place, hoping to just run into her. Evidentally he would have to stop thinking that would happen very often. The cafe had been empty when he poked his head in, but there was no way of knowing if someone wouldn't walk in on them. Then again, he didn't think their conversation would last very long and most people that wanted something from there should have gotten it by now. It was still more secure than a hallway.

"The cafe?" he poised it like a question in case she might have a better place to suggest.

"Okay." Weiss started walking towards him, the same direction where the door would be. He turned, already extending his hand before she fell into step beside him. When Weiss glanced down at the hand he wiggled his fingers, a further invintation.

Another second passed before her fingers wrapped around his, and when he glanced at her from the corner of his eye he could see a small smile there. His own lips curved up as they made their way out of the library and down the hall, to the first floor. It was only a few doors down after that.

With a quick glance around the room to make sure there was no one else there he turned to her the moment they were insied, leaving the door to close by itself. "I want to ask you something." Mercury said, letting go of her hand for now.

"What is it?" Weiss asked, clasping her hands in front of her. Her stance was similiar to that night before the dance.

"Do you want to go out with me? Officially?"

Weiss blinked, straighening her posture a moment later; no longer rocking softly on her heels. "Like a... girlfriend?"

"Yeah." He only gave it a second's pause before going right in for the flowery stuff. "I want to know more about you. I had fun at the restraunt and the dance, and you seemed to enjoy yourself." He knew bringing up the dance might be a little risky, but he had done it anyway. They had already gone over those details before.

It wasn't long until Weiss broke the brief silence following his words. "Can I think about it?"

"Take all the time you need." Mercury reached over to a table to grab a small sheet of paper, taking a pen nearby to write down the communication number for his scroll before handing it to her. "You can use this to reach me." It would cut down on any running around to find him on her part. Of course he would have to continue with that method of finding her for now. "See you later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So with the extremely short screen time of Mercury so far in Volume 4, once this fic is done there might be a lapse since I'll probably be waiting for Volume 5 to come out to figure out how to continue along this alternate line.


End file.
